Concerned Cambridge residents met with the City Council's Environmental Subcommittee at the Fitzgerald Elementary School to discuss a petition concerning the possible development of the property near Alewife owned by W.R. Grace and Co.

The petition, which was signed by 600 area residents, asks that the city contract independent environmental and traffic reports on the development.

Residents charge that for years, the company and the city have ignored their requests for investigation into the safety of developing the Russell Field area.

According to City Councillor Francis H. Duehay '55, who chaired the meeting, the site at the corner of Route 16 and Route 2 is owned by W.R. Grace--a company the councillor called "a notorious polluter"--which plans to sell it to a developer.

Duehay said the city has only partial control over what eventually happens to the land.

"The city has zoning power so it can limit what is put on the development in certain ways," Duehay said. "But a private company owns the land."

Nearly 60 people crowded into the elementary school cafeteria to voice their concerns about the site. More than 20 of them approached the microphone to speak.

Although residents said they were glad the subcommittee chose to hold the meeting near the site, many said the council and W.R. Grace had a long way to go to allay years of mistrust.

Speakers emphasized the need for an independent study, saying that previous reports, including the one authored by John D. Spengler, professor of environmental health at Harvard's School of Public Health, are incomplete and undermined by connections with W.R. Grace.

Residents said they were worried about contaminants in the ground which could be spread by the construction.

Several residents cited unofficial, anecdotal evidence that previous construction sites were linked with increased rates of cancer and asthma.

Other residents, like Hannah Goodwin, said they were concerned about their children.

"Kids play there all year," Goodwin said of Russell Field.

Other residents spoke about the environment and the many species that live in the site's wetlands.

Yet another problem with developing, said other residents such as Peter V. Cignetti III, is that the site is in the middle of a floodplain. Disturbing the plain, Cignetti said, may cause flooding problems in residential homes near the site.

Residents also complained about increased traffic in the area, which causes pollution and safety concerns as well as commuting headaches.

One speaker at the meeting had come from Acton to describe that town's difficulties with the W.R. Grace company's developments.

Cambridge residents said the city and the company have ignored their concerns and characterized them as "paranoid, radical and hysterical."

City Councillor Katherine Triantafillou called for an apology from City Manager Robert W. Healy for just such a characterization of the North Cambridge activists.

The members of the subcommittee, including Mayor Sheila T. Russell, seemed supportive of the residents in their statements at the end of the meeting.

Duehay said the subcommittee will have at least one additional meeting, including one with city and state officials, before it will recommend whether the city should commission independent environmental and traffic studies of the site