“It’s completely antithetical to progress, because they want us to turn back the clock to what Riverside used to be,” McCready says. “They’ve made the leap that any development in Riverside is unacceptable.”

Both Power and McCready say Harvard proposals have been flatly rejected simply because they represent further Harvard development in Riverside.

“A lot of the angst has to do with University development at all on this site,” McCready says. “It’s not what’s being built, how tall or how big. Harvard is the issue.”

No Compromise In Sight?

While Harvard officials say Riverside residents have been inflexible, residents say Harvard has not been willing to consider other options, such as building the museum on the University’s newly acquired land in Allston.

Residents have also suggested other uses that they say they would find acceptable for the Mahoney’s site, such as creating a public sculpture garden or turning over the land to the city in order to build affordable housing.

“For [Harvard] to give the Mahoney’s site to the community is nothing out of their pocket,” Riverside resident Joan Qualls-Harris says. “But the good faith it would create would be more beneficial than anything you could build there.”

But Harvard officials say that a museum is still the University’s main goal.

“My interest is in first exploring options that are in line with Harvard’s interests as a property owner,” Power says.

But after seven meetings, it is unclear whether Harvard or Riverside residents will budge from their positions in time for the study committee to provide recommendations by the end of the moratorium this April that both sides will accept.

“I’m still not seeing anything happening here,” said one committee member during the opening discussions of Wednesday’s study committee meeting. “I don’t feel any sense of accomplishment.”

Residents have already filed a petition with the Cambridge City Council asking for an eight-month extention on the moratorium to allow more time for the study committee to meet.

“These are complex issues, and we’ve just touched the surface,” says M. David Lee, the lead outside consultant hired by the city for the study committee. “This is not something that can be done in a condensed period.”

But even if the extention is approved, further progress may be difficult, if not impossible, unless one of the two sides are willing to compromise on their positions.

“I can’t say whether there’s enough flexibility on either side,” Lee says. “That’s where we stand, but I hope that’s not where we end up.”

—Staff Writer Imtiyaz H. Delewala can be reached at delewala@fas.harvard.edu.