Proposal to build biodefense lab clears final local hurdle

A controversial plan to build a biodefense research laboratory in the South End won final local approval yesterday, receiving the unanimous support of the city's Zoning Commission.

The action appeared to clear the last significant barrier to a spring groundbreaking by Boston University Medical Center for the Biosafety Level 4 lab, where scientists will have the license to work with the deadliest known germs and viruses, including anthrax, plague, and ebola.

While the lab, which has the promise of generating $1.6 billion in federal research and construction grants over the next two decades, must undergo one last round of federal government scrutiny, that review is almost certainly a formality. It was the same agency, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, that selected BU in September 2003 to operate one of the nation's two new Level 4 labs, cornerstones in the Bush administration's campaign to prepare for acts of bioterrorism.

''At the end of the day," said Ellen Berlin, spokeswoman for BU Medical Center, ''what we really care about here is finding cures and saving lives, and that's what this laboratory is going to do."

When the federal government's decision was announced, it was hailed as among the most significant research coups in recent New England history. But during the past 16 months, there was frequent opposition to the project, including street protests, letter-writing campaigns, and threats of lawsuits.

One of the groups at the forefront of opposition, the Conservation Law Foundation, pledged yesterday to continue its fight against the lab, arguing that research on deadly biological agents is better suited for an area less densely populated than the urban neighborhood that is home to BU's medical and bioresearch campus.

Carrie Schneider, a lawyer with the environmental advocacy group, said her organization will continue to demand another review of the environmental impact of building the lab in the South End. The foundation was critical of an earlier environmental review, arguing that it failed to adequately address alternative sites for the research complex.

The environmental group, along with a community organization, Alternatives for Community & Environment, has complained that the decision to build the lab adjacent to one of the city's poorer neighborhoods, Roxbury, shows a lack of respect for its residents.

''There is this very nearby community that feels they get all of the least desirable things in the city placed in their neighborhood," Schneider said.

The lab would be unlike anything Boston's medical community has ever seen, with extensive measures taken to prevent lethal agents from escaping. At the nation's four operational Level 4 research centers, including ones in Atlanta and San Antonio, armed guards monitor checkpoints, labyrinths of hallways make quick escape impossible, and scientists clad in laboratory space suits touch deadly compounds only with mechanical hands.

While opponents of the project have alleged that the BU lab will conduct weapons research, the university and government health authorities have denied that, and medical school leaders have said that the majority of the work in the lab will focus on the health impacts of emerging infectious diseases, rather than on agents related to bioterrorism.

''It's a very important part of our efforts in the state to be on the cutting edge of research," said Christine C. Ferguson, the Massachusetts public health commissioner.

The project appeared destined for clear sailing through the city's regulatory bodies after Mayor Thomas M. Menino enthusiastically endorsed it. Other powerful elected leaders swiftly lined up behind the mayor -- both Democrats and Republicans.

Stephen Smith can be reached at stsmith@globe.com.