"The legal likelihood of the proposal goingthrough in my judgement going through isunlikely," Duehay said.

The council also voted on Monday night to senda letter to Adams Realty Trust's general partners,Walter and Edgar Gulesarian, to express thecouncil's opposition to the demolition and to urgethem to explore other options for increasingavailable parking.

Both Gulesarian brothers could not be reachedfor comment yesterday.

In order to build the parking lot, there areseveral more legal hurdles that the SheratonCommander would have to jump once the six monthdelay expires:

A zoning variance would have to be approved inthe area which forbids parking lots.

Permits for Cambridge's limited number ofparking spots would have to be obtained from theInterim Parking Control Commission.

An evaluation of the parking lot's effect onpublic safety would also have to take place.

"Those are three pretty big hurdles," Bornsaid.

And there remains the possibility that the CityCouncil will deem at least one of the threeproperties eyed by Sheraton "historicallysignificant."

According to Charles Sullivan, executivedirector of the Historical Commission, 22 Harvardprofessor John White Webster, who was tried andconvicted in 1850 of murdering, dismembering andincinerating George Parkman in the famousCommonwealth vs. Webster court case.

The buildings' location on the main throughwaysof Concord Ave. and Garden St. gives them acertain prominence.

"The three are part of a huge gateway intoCambridge. People and tourists see our building asthey go into Harvard Square," said Alexander O.Feldman, a resident of 24 Garden St.

Bickerton said: "Removing the buildings wouldupset the buffer they provide between residentialand commercial areas. It would destroy theequilibrium.