Cambridge Citizens Coalition
In Memoriam:  CCC Advisory Group, Lisa Dreier
          In Memoriam: City Councillor, Joan Pickett
        

Cambridge Plans for a Radical Up-zoning

Core Proposed Up-Zoning Changes ​

CCC and City Up-zoning Plans IN THE NEWS

Boston Globe article (11.21.24) titled "‘We love these buildings’: Should developers get to build six stories anywhere in Cambridge?" 
Cambridge Day (11.20.24) Opinion Piece  "Zoning lessons from other cities: Will we heed them?"
Harvard Crimson (11.13.24) article titled "'Radical and Irresponsible': Residents Blast Zoning Upheaval at Planning Board Hearing." 
Neighborhood Leaders at City Council Committee Meeting Video  (11.20.24): HERE
​Boston Globe on former Public Housing Project (now Luxury Condos)  HERE
      Upcoming Meetings on the Citywide Up-zoning

  •  December 4  (2:30 – Wednesday) Council Ordinance meeting  with PUBLIC COMMENT. Sign up to speak, the day prior to the meeting HERE  Also email comments to City Council at [email protected]  and CC Clerk [email protected]
  • December  19 (5:30- Thursday) Council Ordinance committee regular discussion and PUBLIC COMMENT HERE Sign up to speak, the day prior to the meeting HERE  Also email comments to City Council at [email protected]  and CC Clerk [email protected]
  • January 8,9, or 10 Ordinance Committee Meeting. 
  • January 16. Ordinance Committee Meeting. On this day it will be voted on to either move forward or not. 
  • January 27  If this moves forward. Today will be the first "official reading" at Council. 
  • February 10. If this moves forward, this will be the final vote to approve, or let it die and/or refile at a later date.  ​​

The Numbers & Rationales: Our Goals 

The city's Community Development Department (CDD) has stated as a basic premise that Cambridge  will not meet our 2030 Housing Goals without a radical up-zoning. However this assumption is highly questionable. 

One city resident has looked at the numbers posted by CDD and addressed this on a neighborhood listserve. They have pointed out that 3050 units have been created since 2019 (source: CDD's June 30, 2024 on the Public Housing Inventory. When we add to this 750 units now being built and the 3,950 units that have now been permitted after June of 2023 (source HERE)  we come up with a total of 7750 units of the city's 2030 goal of 12,500 units (or 62% achieved based on the 2018 goal based on housing data at that time. This makes it likely we will meet the 2030 goal without a radical up-zoning. In short, the rationales for this radical up-zoning are based on faulty assumptions, and this is not even taking into account the enormous impacts that COVID has had locally and around the world on the construction industry, including parts availability and workers.  ​

CCC and City Upzoning Plans IN THE NEWS 

READ OUR INFORMATIVE BLOG POSTS ON THE PROPOSED UP-ZONING

What happens when a city leaves planning  & development largely to market forces
(and without serious design review and oversight) 

In Cambridge, if we had better regulations, we would have been about to press to relocate the above duplex at 231 Third Street and its rental unit tenants). 

LOOK UP - KEY DATA AND MEETINGS ON THE UPZONING

Foreseeable Problems with the Proposed citywide 6 story up-zoning Plan:
  • There are serious environmental, infrastructure, and likely increased housing cost problems with the radical proposed citywide up-zoning that likely will see increased demolitions of existing historical sustainable homes to enable large box-like luxury housing that will have far higher price tags than current housing.
  • in Ottawa, Canada, 85% of new condos were purchased by investors, who will financially benefit from the increased rental prices in them: HERE
  • in Arlington, VA a Judge recently struck down the city’s MMH Plan on which Cambridge’s proposed plan is based and further enhances: A key issue in the suit is that this plan “…would overwhelm or even destroy their neighborhoods, clogging up their streets and storm drains and removing tree canopy.”  Washington Post 9.27.24
Are there ways this current up-zoning plan might be tweaked? Yes. Are there things that we might do instead? Yes - see our above blog post. 
Our dense neighbor, Somerville, as a strong city plan with regard to residential and other buildings. Here are some links with features of this plan.

ACTION ALERT 

City Council is considering  a citywide upzoning to allow 6 story market rate housing in every neighborhood.
This will be discussed at the Housing Committee Meeting August 21, 2024 at 11:00.
Read more about the plan in the Boston Globe
Presentations  of this radical citywide upzoning proposal reveal stunning changes to our city’s zoning code: See HERE
CDD has now posted zoning  language for the massive proposed City Up-zoning. Read more HERE. 

SOME OF WHAT THIS PROPOSED UP-ZONING FEATURES h
  • ​Citywide market-rate multifamily residential (as of right) in every city residential neighborhood, most criteria consistent with our current denser C-1 neighborhoods of East Cambridge. 
  • 6 story (75 feet) height as of right. Since most housing in Cambridge is 2.5 stories tall and 75 feet is the equivalent visually of 7.5 stories, these structures may rise 5 stories above the heights of neighboring homes, cutting down sunlight and blocking views of the sky.
  • New homes & additions now may be built to property line for sides & back; there is a front setback of 0' or 5' or 10’ dependent on current zoning. This will result in the loss of considerable amounts of current green spaces and trees citywide. This may also block window light  other features of neighboring homes.  
  • No required design oversight (Planning Board is advisory, and then only for larger projects). Large boxy structures with little if any interest in adornment or quality of materials are likely to prevail.
  • Required  open space becomes only 30% in all city residential areas: cutting back significantly from current requirements  in many neighborhoods. This will result in the loss of considerable  trees and green space in neighborhoods across the city.
  • Required open space can include roofs, decks, garage tops, as well as  permeable paving, pedestrian walkways, and bicycle parking. This  still further eliminates existing green spaces and trees. 
  • No minimal spatial dimensions are stipulated in meeting the "open space" requirement  (prior zoning had a 15'x 15' requirement. This means that a set of very small unusable spaces could count as open space; these likely will make it difficult to retain or plant new trees. ​​
OTHER IMPACTS 
  • If this up-zoning proposal passes, new city "AHO projects in every residential neighborhood will be allowed to reach   "...AT LEAST 13 STORIES HIGH" (emphasis added) and to reach up to 15 stories high in Harvard Square, Central Square, Porter Square, and Cambridge St/Webster. Stated: HERE (See 1.207.5.2  in the section on "AHO Dimensional Standards").  AHO criteria also will be modified (downwards) to become equal to (no more onerous than) the new zoning requirements. 
  • Most new market rate and AHO projects with this up-zoning will require the demolition of existing homes and the removal of current tenants. These residents likely will have to leave the city. Related demolitions carry significant environmental consequences. The removal and rebuilding of a structure is estimated  cause 40,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions, and a new "green" building will take c. 80 years to recoup the damage done.
  • Any new housing with this up-zoning is likely to be considerably more expensive than the housing it replaces. This will increase property values of owners and neighbors, which in turn will increased taxes owned the city each year, impacting low and moderate income residents and seniors on fixed income. 
  • These up-zoning changes are likely to impact our denser, poorer neighborhoods much more heavily and will exacerbate ongoing gentrification in these areas and elsewhere. 
  • These up-zoning changes will significantly reduce sunlight for neighboring homes and also reduce green spaces, gardens, and trees. 
  • These new buildings will have no required parking and will likely exacerbate city parking and traffic problems. 
  • These up-zoning changes may  have severe (often un-planned) impacts on our existing infrastructure and possibly on the safety of residents (increasing potential d loss of property and life if fire fighter access is restricted. ​
  • This up-zoning is likely to impact the health and mortality rates in denser neighborhoods as ambient temperatures rise due to the increasing loss of mature trees and canopy.
We have also created several new blog posts including  "What Responsible Zoning Entails" with a number of key questions to address before we go forward. This Is especially important because, as a recent NPR report makes clear, the impact of expanded luxury apartments on overall community housing prices is a complex and highly contested issue among economists and housing researchers, with local experts at MIT and Tufts underscoring that additional luxury housing often actually increases community wide housing prices: HERE  In short, Cambridge is not Minneapolis or Chicago (or even Austin). We need a Cambridge solution for a Cambridge and area set of problems.
Above images from our "Responsible Zoning" blog:  image sources: Left - Somerville Zoning Ordinance: HERE and Right - City of Cambridge: HERE

City Council is considering  a citywide upzoning to allow 6 story market rate housing in every neighborhood.
This will be discussed at the Housing Committee Meeting August 21, 2024 at 11:00.
Read more about the plan in the Boston Globe

Presentations  of this radical citywide upzoning proposal reveal stunning changes to our city’s zoning code: See HERE
 
Write to City Council at: [email protected]
CC the clerk: [email protected]
Sign up to speak by zoom or in person 24 hours before the meeting: cambridgema.gov/publiccomment
Above photo is from CDD website. Too often this is how it feels that the city is addressing zoning here, and simply a blank slate to toss in what they want where ever, letting the market decide what our future will look like. 
​

CCC is committed to promoting good governance and to driving positive urban change. To fuel our mission, we rely on the generosity of individuals like you.

CCC is free and open to everyone.
But we urge people able to do so to donate $25-$40 yearly either to help CCC 's active Civic work (at the Act Blue link above) or to support complementary city election efforts at CambridgePac.org: HERE

Weekly Calendars of Local Civic & Other Events

Weekly Calendar A: Cambridge City Government -  the ​CITY WEEKLY CALENDAR
Weekly Calendar B: Cambridge Day Weekly Calendar HERE
Weekly Calendar C:  Cambridge Civic Weekly Calendar of Events and Meetings in Cambridge: Cambridge Civic
Weekly Calendar D: Have Fun!  Patch Local Music and Entertainment: HERE
Weekly Calendar E: Find It Cambridge HERE
​Find out how to contact City Council and Commissions Find out how to sign up to speak at city meetings,  and more ...

Congratulations!  Charlie Sullivan for the 2024 PM
​ Lifetime Achievement Award!

CITY FINANCIAL MATTERS:
​HOW CLOSE ARE WE TO BELT-TIGHTENING TIME? 

DENSITY & HOUSING: How Much Can We Sustainably Grow? 

Exactly how many new homes, and at what price points, does the city aim to build? We need real data, and from that we need to come up with a viable plan  - taking into account environmental and equity needs and the natural COVID and High Interest Rate building downturn, 
According to the Cambridge City Manager's report as of June 2023, Cambridge housing stock includes 57,894 units either available or under construction. 8,591 of these are public housing (tax payer sponsored housing).

ON THE ISSUE OF HOUSING SUPPLY AND DEMAND: 
​ READ URBAN PLANNER PATRICK CONDON 

CITY COUNCIL HOUSING COMMITTEE PROPOSING MASSIVE CITY WIDE UP-ZONING ​

MARK YOUR CALENDARS: May 22,2024 Housing Committee, the citywide up-zoning returns to the Housing Committee. 

Allowances will allow dense C-1 zoning criteria for residential areas citywide and  may include 6 stories for buildings with 10 units or more with mandated inclusionary zoning. There are also large increases in allowable occupancy levels, with no building design oversight, and no required parking.

What are we trying to achieve? If this is about adding more affordable housing (a key city goal), this will not work, and indeed will make things worse by encouraging more market rate competition to public housing developers. As the current situation has shown, no market rate developer wants to build 10-unit apartment or condo structures if it means adding 20% inclusionary. Instead, they l build 9-unit structures. And as we add more density, heat island impacts rise. In all probability, if this zoning proposal passes, these developers will compete with public housing (AHO) developers for properties, and the former will have ample funds to win. 

A-1 districts (and others) may be rezoned to C-1 (East Cambridge) levels and may see a decline from 6,000 SF lot sizes to 1,200 SF lot sizes  (the latter would become generalized citywide) . This proposed plan would remove large amounts of green space and trees. Therecould be far more units within each property, without a parking or planned neighborhood infrastructure changes. We likely will see historic house tear downs to build large McMansions or multi-unit luxury condos. None of these proposed plans would require BZA approval. 

Where is the process on this?. No city staff  members have  reached out to let residents know about this highly consequential proposal. We should not make the same mistake we did on the AHO-2 where the proposal was rushed into zoning language and all one could do was tweak it. 
 
Read More on the Zoning Proposal in  our Blog Post Below
The Proposed Citywide Up-zoning Change
The Added Problem with Tear-downs In this Up-zoning
                                                          A useful article on environmental cost of demolitions here: https://restoreoregon.org/2021/04/12/understanding-the-carbon-cost-of-demolition/
  • "Conservatively speaking, residential and commercial demolitions in the City of Portland are responsible for 124,741 metric tons of C02 emissions per year, which amounts to approximately 4.5 percent of the City’s total annual reduction goal."
  • "This study finds that it takes 10 to 80 years for a new building that is 30 percent more efficient than an average-performing existing building to overcome, through efficient operations, the negative climate change impacts related to the construction process.”
  • "calling upon policy makers to acknowledge the environmental impact of sending usable buildings to landfills; strive for density without demolition; provide meaningful incentives for retention and reuse; and maintain or strengthen demolition review requirements for designated historic properties."
Reading Assignment - the NYC example (2024
City Councillor Committee Assignments
The larger CCC Team has put together a list of priorities for this term. Below are the highlights.
                                                                                         CCC PRIORITIES 2024-25

CCC looks forward to working with every Councillor, city staff member, resident, and business across the city to help our city government achieve the following policy or process changes. This can be a year of real progress for the city.
                                                                                           
                                                                                                    SIX TOP PRIORITIES
​
BETTER GOVERNMENT:  Require speedy responses to public records requests; require clerk (or others) to publish votes with initials on city website during Council and other public meetings; publish weekly meeting calendar; add more separation between Councillors and judiciary committees (BZA, CHC, PB); limit House Doctor (our “in house” pre-approved contractor projects) to below $500K.
 
CITY FINANCES:  5-year plan to keep city fiscally sound; more upfront detail on development proposal costs; maintain low residential and commercial property taxes.
 
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES AND CLIMATE RESILIENCY:  Annual City updates on climate change results; published plan for new infrastructure; enact Urban Forestry Master Plan; improve environmental impact studies re climate goals.

HOUSING: Support the rights of tenants against unfair evictions, lease terminations, and rate hikes; encourage adoption of Senate bill S684 providing legal counsel; add financial incentives for property owners to add units to existing homes and keep rents below market rates for non-family for a fixed time period; allow multifamily zoning citywide without unduly increasing property values and impacting green space; create citywide design review committee; promote city purchased land for housing (land trusts) and lease land to developers; add regular independent reviews of tenant concerns and building upkeep; provide a single anonymized list of housing applicants and update annually
 
NEIGHBORHOODS: Provide more local meeting places and encourage more neighborhood groups citywide; host annual city council meeting with neighborhood group leaders; address long term vacancies (homes and local businesses) by adding escalating fee structure. Do annual review of ISD requests and completions. Simplify and speed up responses to street light outages etc.

TRANSPORTATION AND INFRASTRUCTURE: Traffic camera use for better counts citywide and consider violation tickets like DC; address best practices for safest bicycle, scooter, skateboard use; Modified broadband for city square open spaces and both low income and senior housing.
c
READ CCC's BLOG ABOUT THE ELECTION RESULTS 

TRANSIT

CCC has a blog post up on the 2023 City Bicycling Report

HOUSING

CCC has a new blog post the climate change and building heights: HERE

The massive citywide upzoning amendment known as AHO 2.0 was ordained by City Council on October 15, 2023 allowing 12 story buildings on key avenues and 15 story buildings in historic squares for exclusively income-limited residents seeking housing from around the area and more broadly. Historic still sustainable buildings will be demolished throughout the city for tall very dense structures without setbacks, parking, key infrastructure planning, or Planning Board oversight.Opposing AHO 2.0 were Councillors Carlone, Nolan, Toner; Supporting AHO 2.0 were Councillors: Azeem, McGovern, Siddiqui, Simmons, Mallon and Zondervan.
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Get Building Height Right for the Climate! "It may seem obvious that cities filled with big buildings use energy more efficiently than dispersed suburban landscapes, and that newer, taller buildings are more energy-efficient than older, squatter structures. People widely understand that New York City, for example, ranks well on energy use per person, where housing tends toward the vertical, one boiler room can serve many units, and heat rises into the units above, rather than being lost to the sky....Skyscrapers use and lose more energy than low-rise buildings, research shows....

'The results show that height is a significant predictor of energy use, even accounting for other variables,'the researchers wrote in a paper published in the journal Building Research and Information. In fact, each additional story in a building is associated with a 2.4 percent increase in electricity use and 2.9 percent increase in fossil fuel use, more than doubling the average emissions per square foot for the tallest buildings in their survey."  Source: Greentech Media November 2020 (read article at link below).
This proposal was not taken up by Council on Sept 11 as planned, but because it is not a zoning petition with a time limit, it can be brought back by one or more Councillor at a future date. This bill, that pretty much gives full reign to developers to build what they want, would remove  all but one professionals from NCD Committees, require City Council approval before a proposal can begin, disallow commission discussions or decisions about height or setbacks, increase tenfold the number of petitioners needed (from 10 to 100 even for a small street), allow 30 petitioners to terminate an existing NCD, require lengthy reviews every 10 years.

PROPOSED INCREASES IN URBAN DENSITY:
POSSIBLE HEAT ISLAND IMPACTS

CCC blogpost: 
​AHO THIRD YEAR INTERIM REPORT:
​Past, Present, Future(?)


​Key takeaways from our recent blog: The Third Year Interim AHO report:  already we are  seeing the impacts of AHO 1.0 and even the AHO 2.0 currently under discussion and they often are not positive. Yes there are some successes, such as the repurposing of the former Sacred Heart Convent and School in East Cambridge and the fact that there are now some 1500 affordable housing units in the works. Another success has been the New Street development near Danehy Park, a project that preceded the AHO passage as a result of an intervention by then Councillor Jan Devereux to switch a proposed storage container building to affordable housing. We are also seeing more clearly now what happens when we have little viable accountability and oversight by the Cambridge Housing Authority and the city itself.  Jefferson Park will cost nearly $1 million per unit to build (far more expensive than market rate housing units cost). And here there was no need to purchase land, since here they are simply rebuilding the existing structures at double the density and at greater height. In addition theses developments are sometimes very poorly managed, with so many complaints that the Mayor and Vice Mayor wrote a letter to the Cambridge Housing Authority to complain about the management of Walden Square.   CCC's August 18, 2021 First Year AHO Report can be found HERE.

RECENT CCC BLOGS OF IMPORTANCE NOW
Originally published in Cambridge Day
Frogs-R-Us addresses some of the issues around developer interests and investments in Cambridge. Above image left; the cover to Jean-François Batellier’s 1978 cartoon collection, “No Deposit, No Return.”; right: cover of Cambridge Monopoly game.
Playing Monopoly takes up core issues in the architectural preservation issues around a move by another political party to gut long-standing conservation and historic preservation efforts in Cambridge
 Other Cambridge Citizens Coalition Research and Opinion Pieces published in Cambridge Day
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WHO WE ARE

Cambridge Citizens Coalition (CCC) was founded by local neighborhood group leaders and is led by them along with other local civic activists and residents dedicated to smart development, thoughtful city planning, good governance policies, sustainability, housing affordability, and the preservation of our trees, green spaces, and historic architecture. 

"CCC is a city-wide organization that does not... believe that developers know best about how to solve the affordable housing crisis. That is pure neo-liberalism and that is the flavor favored by our political opponents. We are interested in taking land costs out of the equation as much as possible, building on city properties, encouraging land trusts and protecting renters. We also do not take a back seat on climate issues and want city resources spent on creating safe streets for bikers." (CCC Board Member, Chris Mackin).
 ​                                                                   CCC: Promoting a More Livable Cambridge 
                                                                       
​                                                                     Change can’t wait. We need bold, progressive polices to address our most pressing issues 
 
                                                                                               POLICIES THAT MATTER ON:
Cambridge Citizens Coalition (CCC) is dedicated to thoughtful city planning, smart development, good governance policies, sustainability, housing affordability, and the preservation of our trees, green spaces, and historic architecture.  

1. Environmental Equity - addressing climate change can't wait!  Safeguard trees and green spaces in every neighborhood. 

2. Housing -  stop gentrification, end exclusive single family zoning, create a real path to home ownership; add  more mixed income housing  

 3. Smart Growth - we need a Citywide plan for smart growth (people before profits) 

 4.  Neighborhoods are key  (retain and build on naturally affordable longterm sustainable housing)

 5.  We live in an historic city; let's work together to preserve  our rich architectural diversity.

 6.  Policies for equity (from Broadband and  HEART to Universal Pre-K)  
 MAILING DONATION CHECK$
Checks  to Cambridge Citizens Coalition IE PAC can be mailed to CCC at P.O. Box 410291, Cambridge, MA 02141.
​Checks  to Cambridge Citizens Coalition can be mailed to CCC at P.O. Box 410083, Cambridge, MA 02141.
CCC stands with the LGBTQIA+ community’s fight for equality. We are committed to ending anti-LGBTQIA+ violence, bullying, and discrimination, and to ensuring that LGBTQIA+ individuals are treated with dignity and respect in their communities, their workplaces, and their schools. CCC believes in nurturing growth and positive change for individuals and communities alike. We stand with and advocate for equity and social justice for indigenous communities, people of color (BIPOC), those with disabilities,  others  marginalized and individuals practicing every religious faith.
LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 
We honor and acknowledge that Cambridge sits on the traditional homelands of the Massachusett people. We also acknowledge their close neighbors and relatives, the Nipmuc and Wampanoag peoples.

Location

Who We Are
​
Cambridge Citizens Coalition was founded by local neighborhood group leaders and is led by them along with other local civic activists and residents dedicated to smart development, thoughtful city planning, good governance policies, sustainability, housing affordability, and the preservation of our trees, green spaces, and historic architecture. 

​Contact us at CCCoalition1 at gmail dot com. or by mail at P.O. Box410083. Cambridge, MA 02141.

Land Acknowledgement: 
We acknowledge and honor that Cambridge sits on the traditional homelands of the Massachusett people. We also acknowledge their close neighbors and relatives, the Nipmuc and Wampanoag peoples.

Contact CityCouncil: [email protected]

Sign-Up to Speak at City Council or other meetings: cambridgema.gov/publiccomment 

City Clerk:  [email protected]

City Manager:[email protected]

Public Records Request: https://www.cambridgema.gov/iwantto/submitapublicrecordsrequest
​

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