And ACID representative Joel Bard said he thought the low turn-out was a sign that people were satisfied with the agreement and felt any concerns had already been addressed at previous meetings.

“I take the decision of people not to come as a sign that they agree,” Bard said.

Power praised the ACID team for their efforts to involve the neighborhood, which ranged from conducting a survey to gauge the neighborhood’s priorities to holding several informal gatherings last month for residents to discuss a draft of the agreement.

Agassiz residents Tom Frank ’44 and his wife Kate Frank said after the meeting that they did not support the agreement because it was not specific enough on some points.

They said they would have liked to see more details on what Harvard will do to limit the negative impacts of construction, which range from dust to noise to vibrations.

“We think it was a good draft document but with some issues that we felt continue to need more work,” Kate Frank said.

She added that there were “a lot of good elements” in the deal and that she would have supported it if there had been more time to work out the specifics.

Power said she knew some had concerns about construction’s negative impacts, but said that it was difficult to put too many specifics into the deal.

“It’s impossible in six pages to anticipate every issue that will come up over the next 25 years,” she said. “The key thing is to establish a framework for continuing discussion, and that’s what the [agreement] accomplishes.”

Bloomstein emphasized that signing the deal later this month will be a “symbolic moment” and that the important part was to establish communication between Harvard and the neighborhood.

“This is really an ongoing, evolving relationship,” he said. “There’s a lot of work ahead of us to actually turn the spirit of the [agreement] into a reality. I really see this not as the end of a process but the beginning of a new process.”

On the Horizon

Though several of Harvard’s schools are interested in expansion, FAS is first in line to develop in Agassiz, with three science buildings totalling 670,350 square feet in various stages of planning.

The negotiating team has already developed an agreement covering these three projects.

Under the agreement, the University will sponsor traffic control measures at two busy intersections in the neighborhood, provide landscaping along the edge of its campus and donate $50,000 for planting trees in the neighborhood.