By Derek Hawkins

Chuck Turner, originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, moved to Boston in 1966, and has worked in the city as a community organizer and political leader since.

One of Turner’s first major accomplishments as an organizer came in his early years in Boston, when he helped lead a community-wide effort to block construction of a stretch of highway that was slated to run through what is now Parcel 18, the site of Northeastern’s new 1,200-bed residence hall project.

In the late-1960s, the Massachusetts Department of Public Works demolished homes in Lower Roxbury and Jamaica Plain for the planned construction of an Interstate 95 extension through Boston.

Turner, then a co-chair of the community group Black United Front, was one of several leaders who orchestrated protests to prevent the highway from being built. On one occasion Turner and others laid in the middle of Columbus Avenue to block construction.

Faced with massive community resistance, then Gov. Francis Sargent, in February 1970, agreed to put a moratorium on the plan.

“We threatened to use our opposition to embarrass Governor Sargent if he refused to stop the construction,” Turner said. “We succeeded.”

Out of that agreement came a guarantee that the tract of land known as Parcel 18 would be set aside for an economic development site to be controlled by the community, Turner said.

The land remained relatively untouched for the next two decades as residents and community groups negotiated with the city and state government on how development would take place.

The first major project on Parcel 18 came in 1995, when a minority-owned developer built a headquarters for the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles.

However, the following year the registry vacated the building on the grounds that it was a “sick building,” and that unspecified health hazards there were endangering employees.

Shortly after, the building, along with the rest of the Parcel 18 land was auctioned, Turner said. Northeastern placed the winning bid.

Northeastern, as part of a promise to couple its development of the land with economic benefits, opened the building, now called Renaissance Park, to local businesses. Whittier Street Health Center, a community health center located on the ground floor, receives free rent, but pays its own operating fees.

Northeastern acquired Parcel 18 with the original intent to build the Renaissance Park Garage, now located at 835 Columbus Ave., and to allow the construction of a hotel at the corner of Tremont Street and Melnea Cass Boulevard, also part of the benefits package. Plans to build the hotel remain unclear, Northeastern officials and community representatives said.

Shortly after, Northeastern constructed Davenport Commons A and B at 700 and 696 Columbus Ave., respectively, also on Parcel 18. Turner protested the buildings at the time.

It was not until 2005 that Northeastern, community representatives and elected officials identified Parcel 18 as an appropriate site for a new residence hall. More than two years of negotiations followed and in 2007, Northeastern began construction.

Turner has protested the development of the new residence hall at all levels, calling the project “insane” and describing students as a “battering ram” of gentrification in Lower Roxbury.

“Clearly [Northeastern’s] submission shows they have no respect to the community,” Turner said in an interview with The News in 2006. “Fifteen-hundred students on the Roxbury side of Columbus Avenue will just lead to more interference in the community.”

Northeastern officials have repeatedly rejected Turner’s charges.

“[The residence hall] will have positive benefits in a number of ways,” said Robert Gittens, vice president for public affairs. “There will be a community benefits package that will provide benefits to the surrounding community. It will help enhance economic activity in the area.”