In a meeting Monday night, the Cambridge City Council moved toward an eight month extension of a moratorium on development in Cambridge’s Riverside neighborhood that was designed to prevent Harvard from going forward on its plans to build a new art museum.

The petition, sponsored by 16 residents of Riverside, was sent by the council to its development and ordinance committees for preliminary review.

Several council members stated general support for the proposal. Councilor Kathleen L. Born said that the moratorium extension would likely return to the council’s agenda for final adoption in December.

The prohibition on development, informally known as the “Loose Moratorium,” has been in effect for a large portion of the Riverside neighborhood since Oct. 2000. As originally approved, the moratorium would last for 18 months—until next April.

The moratorium prevents Harvard from building on two of its last remaining relatively undeveloped tracks of land in Cambridge. These properties are located at the intersection of Grant and Banks Street—the present site of a parking lot near Mather House—and at the intersection of Memorial Drive and Western Avenue—the present site of Mahoney’s Garden Center.

Community opposition to Harvard’s proposals to build an art museum on the property now occupied by Mahoney’s led residents to request the original development moratorium last year.

According to a Harvard representative, the University has no opposition to the requested extension, particularly because it would not be ready to begin construction on the art museum when the moratorium currently expires in April.

“We were quite clear [during the discussion last fall] that there was no way that we’d put a shovel in the ground for at least 24 months,” said Travis A. McCready, Harvard’s director of community relations for Cambridge.