“That’s why I think people take the attitude, ‘no more undergrad housing,’” he adds.

‘INS AND OUTS’

If Harvard undergraduates do move across the river, it is unlikely that they will transform North Allston in same way that residents have complained BU undergraduates changed South Allston.

Almost all undergraduates at Harvard live and will continue to live in a handful of concentrated Houses, while about a quarter of BU students live off campus.

Unlike South Allston, much of the land that Harvard will develop in North Allston is currently dedicated to industrial, not residential use. Thus there are fewer streets like Gordon Street that would be directly affected by the presence of undergraduates.

Nevertheless, the construction of undergraduate Houses in Allston would create an influx of temporary residents—a population many in the community want to avoid.

“We don’t want the neighborhood to lose all its families and long-term residents and to be a stopping point for people who are there for a short time, because that is already affecting the quality of the community,” says Bob Van Meter, the executive director of the Allston Brighton Community Development Corporation.

“We have enough ins and outs as it is,” says Rita DiGesse, a member of the Harvard Allston Campus Task Force.

Hanlon says that North Allston currently has a high rate of homeowners who live in their own homes—a statistic that he does not want to see change.

“People have an appreciation for their investment,” he says. “People have a regard for their neighbors and [an interest] not to allow people to have parties to three in the morning.”

Similar concerns have stalled Harvard’s development of prime plots of land in the Riverside neighborhood in Cambridge.

Residents who live adjacent to Dunster, Mather, and Leverett Houses frequently complain about loud parties and disruptive student behavior.

“Students congregate on the streets—you can hear the conversation perfectly,” Michael Brennan, who lives across the street from Leverett House, told The Crimson in March. “These students think I’m a mean guy. I understand they want to have fun, but this is where I live.”

Living in such close proximity to undergraduates has strained residents’ relationship with the University, and they have historically opposed any further encroachment of college students into their neighborhood.

When the University constructed the DeWolfe Street apartments in the early 1990s, officials told residents the buildings would be for graduate students and junior faculty, sparking resentment in the neighborhood after the buildings were devoted to overflow housing for undergraduates instead.