Cambridge City Council was deeply divided over a proposed housing development in East Cambridge last night.

The ComEnergy site at Third Street and Broadway, formerly an energy plant, is the site of a proposed 1.4 million-sq. ft. housing, office and entertainment complex, to be built by Lyme Properties, a Cambridge-based development company.

Councillor Timothy J. Toomey Jr. erupted in rage after Vice Mayor Anthony D. Galluccio proposed a resolution asking the Managing Director of Lyme Properties David E. Clem and East Cambridge residents concerned over the development to sit down and talk over the proposal.

The last time the neighbors and the developer sat down to formal talks was last May.

Galluccio's suggestion that the neighbors needed to be more cooperative with the developers angered Toomey, who has been trying to stop the development project from going through at all.

"East Cambridge has not gotten the respect it deserves from either this council or this city," Toomey said.

Furthermore, Toomey argued that it was the developers, not the residents who were refusing to be flexible in rethinking the development.

"The people of East Cambridge wanted to work with the process," Toomey said. "They have been hoodwinked."

In response, Clem claimed he had not been invited to neighborhood meetings, which he said he would have willingly attended.