Under city law, the City Council must act on the petition before midnight on September 22.

According to Russell, the petition grew out of concerns about overdevelopment and fears that down zoning was taking place too slowly.

At the June 24 meeting, petitioners said their proposal was designed to replace "inflated, outdated zoning." They warned of the consequences of overdevelopment--from flooding in the Alewife area to oversized buildings which damage the character of neighborhoods.

Although almost half of Cambridge has been rezoned in the last 20 years, at the present rate it would take another 20 to 30 years to cover all the areas, Russell said.

"We thought we should just level the playing field now. Then if the city wants to go on slowly fine tuning, that's fine," he said.

One of the petition's signatories, Cambridge resident Susan Yanow, said there was no single concern fueling the petition.

"It isn't Harvard per se," she said. "It's all the developmental pressure of which Harvard is a part."

But petitioner H. A. Crosby Forbes '50 said it was concerns about Harvard development that prompted his involvement.

"If Harvard continues to do in the next decade what it did in the decade of the '60s, there won't be much left in residential area of Cambridge near the Square," he said.

Forbes also criticized a lack of information about the University's plans for development.

"I'd like to know what the University plans to do in terms of its future. [Alumni are] asked to give money every year," he said.

And another petitioner said she was not convinced by Harvard's claims that it is sympathetic to petitioner's concerns.

"I think that's a whitewash," she said. "Harvard's interest is Harvard. Harvard is not interested in the quality of life in Cambridge. We saw that with what happened in [Allston]-Brighton."

Russell said that while he has no immediate concerns about University development, there have been problems in the past.

"Though it's rare that Harvard builds a building that's too tall, it happens sometimes. It would be nice that William James never had been there," he said.

"Harvard has a very able and capable head of planning [Spiegelman] right now, but she's not going to be there forever and we don't know what will happen," he said