He addressed all the issues we raised,” she said.

But Tyler said that he did not understand why community groups opposed his proposal while they supported Cushman’s.

“Double-decker buses are much larger than our vehicles,” he said. “We only want to license two vehicles.”

Tyler insisted that Hydra-terra tours would have positive ramifications for the area.

“This is going to benefit the community in the long-run,” he said. “We are going to employ people. We’re about to have something unique. We’re not coming to steal from the community but to strengthen it.” Tyler added that he plans to invest corporate funds and donate the interest to local groups.

And he said that with the completion of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, there would be enough tourism for both the double-decker buses and the Hydra-terras.

“Competition is healthy,” Tyler said. “[The Hydra-terras] will have no impact on [Cushman’s] business. We’re going to be flooded with tourists and we need to have the facilities to accommodate them.”

Yet for all its apparent novelty, Tyler’s idea is not a new one. Cindy Brown, general manager of Boston Duck Tours said that when her company first opened in the early 1990s it wanted to launch a duck boat tour through Harvard Square, but the idea was shot down by residents.              

“Folks in that area voted us down,” she said.

—Staff writer Joseph M. Tartakoff can be reached at tartakof@fas.harvard.edu.