"We convinced the Congressman that it would be a good idea," Joseph F. Tulimieri, executive director of the CRA, tells GlobeSt.com. The federal government has title to a 14.3-acre parcel in Kendall Square on which there are five buildings totaling 340,000-sf of space; an amount that Tulimieri points out is miniscule for that size parcel. The land was transferred to the federal government by the CRA back in the 1960s for development of a NASA site. By the end of 1969, when the agency was in the process of transferring additional land, then-President Lyndon Johnson decided to shift the NASA operations to Houston. The US Department of Transportation took the site over and developed the National Transportation System Center there. Since then, notes Tulimieri, "nothing has gone on there for 30 years. The site has stayed there like that."

Capuano's bill wants to see open space and 250 units of housing on 1.8 acres of the site. The other four acres would remain as open space. The legislation would provide for 30% affordable housing with 25% of that figure for low income housing.

Tulimieri says that the CRA wants to see the Department of Transportation stay and expand on the rest of the parcel and the legislation provides funding for that purpose or for any entity that has commercial development rights in the Kendall Square area, such as Boston Properties or Biogen. Tulimieri notes that the federal government can develop up to 750,000 sf there and remain exempt from taxes or local zoning regulations. But Tulimieri adds that it is unlikely that the Department of Transportation will ever "need that kind of additional space" but he would like to see a combination of taxable and non taxable development there.