Resident Alec Wysoker ’84, a member of the committee, said over the weekend that he felt the process of implementing the deal was hampered by a “complete lack of trust on both sides.”

But others expressed hope that the agreement, with yesterday’s approval of the easement, could usher in a new era in town-gown relations.

“[The deal] has the potential of really breaking new ground between the community and the University,” resident and committee member Phyllis Baumann said after the meeting.

“I just could not be more pleased that what was lemons could become very good lemonade,” said Councillor Kenneth E. Reeves ’72.

The council avoided a potential delay in granting the easement last Friday when a Middlesex Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Riverside resident Cob Carlson against the nine councillors and City Manager Robert W. Healy.

Carlson—a resident of Hingham Street, the street affected by the easement—said the city did not follow the necessary procedures, including holding public hearings and conducting an appraisal of the land, before granting the easement.

In an interview last night, Carlson said the easement was part of a deal that was unfair to his section of Riverside because it would allow Harvard to block his street off from the river with new buildings.

“The people in my neck of the woods...were offered up as sacrificial lambs for that deal to occur,” he said.

—Staff writer Jessica R. Rubin-Wills can be reached at rubinwil@fas.harvard.edu.