Residents of the Riverside neighborhood complained to the Cambridge City Council this week that they have been “kept in the dark” while city leaders and Harvard officials held talks over a controversial rezoning plan for the area along the Charles River.

The rezoning—which is due for a city council vote by Oct. 28—comes in the form of two plans.

The first was created by the Riverside Study Committee, a neighborhood group spurred to action by their opposition to an art museum Harvard planned for their neighborhood.

Calling the study committee’s plan too “punitive” to Harvard, the city’s Planning Board created their own plan, which allowed for more flexibility and somewhat taller buildings.

At the first council meeting of the fall on Monday, Councillors David P. Maher and Brian P. Murphy ’86-’87, co-chairs of the council’s Ordinance Committee—which traditionally hammers out compromises on zoning petitions—pledged to reach a decision on the neighborhood rezoning before the Oct. 28 deadline.

But during the public comment period, residents expressed their anger that they were not informed about meetings between councillors and University representatives in recent weeks.

The study committee members said they learned on Monday that councillors have been meeting in small groups with representatives from the University’s office of community affairs, Harvard planners, and two architectural firms who have been hired by Harvard to plan the development of two sites in Riverside.

“We have the impression at the present moment that we’re being kept in the dark,” study committee member Phyllis Baumann said.

She called on council members to commit to passing the study committee’s petition, known as the Carlson petition, unless a better compromise can be reached, and to provide written information about the plans being discussed with Harvard.

“You have the power to represent our interests,” she said. “You simply have to have the guts to do it.”

According to study committee member Alec Wysoker ’84, he and five others met with Maher and Murphy last Friday but were not informed about ongoing talks with the University.

“We didn’t hear anything about the substance,” he said after the council meeting. “All we heard about was the process.”

Last month, Harvard submitted written opposition to both petitions, saying the restrictions on building height and density would prevent them from developing their land holdings in Riverside, including the current Mahoney’s Garden Center site on Memorial Drive, where the University now hopes to construct graduate student housing.

Since Harvard is the largest land-owner in the area, their objection means that either petition now requires the vote of seven out of nine councillors to be enacted.

At the council meeting, Councillor Marjorie C. Decker—a Riverside native and one of the council’s staunchest advocates for the neighbors’ plan—said she “saw potentially very interesting things” in Harvard’s presentation but was concerned that there would not be enough time left to discuss the plans with neighborhood residents.