 PART FOUR -- A PRIMER: OUR Revolutionary YIMBY Success StoryCITY COUNCILLOR Burhan Azeem has published a PRIMER on Upzoning in Celebrating his Huge YIMBY Victory in Cambridge! His celebratory YIMBY primer is getting a lot of hits, "shares" and positive comments on the new Bluesky social media site. You can read the Primer here: Primer on Cambridge's Multifamily Housing Zoning Cambridge City Councillor, Burhan Azeem Councillor Azeem writes in part: "The City of Cambridge, home to about 118,000 residents as well as Harvard and MIT, has had one of the most complicated and restrictive zonings in America—so much so that in a city of 55,000 housing units, just 350 units were expected to be built in the next 15 years in our neighborhoods. A full 85%+ of the neighborhoods were nonconforming, meaning that most of the buildings in the current city are illegal to build under current zoning (never mind adding new units). This issue, coupled with rising rental rates—the average rent for a one-bedroom in Cambridge is $3,466—and our national housing crisis, has made housing the forefront issue for many Americans. I, along with my housing co-chair (Cllr. Sumbul Siddiqui), and the rest of the Housing Committee set out to reimagine our zoning to match the moment. This culminated in a two-pronged approach: a citywide zoning effort to legalize six stories citywide, paired with another zoning reform to increase density in the corridors and squares, which we expect to begin later this year." Azeem includes the City's illustration below as part of this primer, perhaps to show both the massive extent of the up-zoning. Currently the average height of city homes is 2.5 stories (allowable to 35 feet everywhere). The above Henry Street project is typical. And while, the heights of the 6 story buildings came down from 75' to 74' this is not much of a negotiated reframing. Nor does he mention here that as part of the up-zoning ordinance, the city is now allowing 9 story buildings in every neighborhood if they are 100% affordable, partially public-funded projects conforming with our recently passed Affordable Housing Overlay. Azeem writes in this post:  As we see here, Azeem publishes his celebratory post with these words: "We just passed the single most comprehensive rezoning in the US--legalizing multifamily housing up to 6 stories city wide in a Paris style." We will address the Paris issue later in this post and in Part V but let's look at what this so-called primer actually states. Councillor Azeem goes on to write in this "primer" that: "•On February 10, 2025, Cambridge passed our Multifamily Housing Zoning, which ended exclusionary zoning in Cambridge. It’s one of the biggest rezonings in the country, which will set a great baseline for the city and hopefully cities across the country. •The original six-story proposal was built to set a strong pipeline for housing growth. It eliminated single-family and two-family zoning restrictions, permitting multifamily and townhouse residences by right in all residential districts. It also removed many dimensional restrictions except for a six-story height limit: no setbacks, no FAR (floor-by-area ratio), no dwelling unit per lot area, no maximum number of units, no townhouse restrictions, no minimum lot size, no special permits (for buildings under 75k sqft), and no parking minimums. It had a 30% open space requirement, a ten-foot front setback for trees, and mandated that 1 in 5 new units be affordable (for buildings with 10+ units). •We added three minor amendments: a five-foot side & rear setback requirement with exemptions; a requirement that buildings over four stories must include affordable units; and a minimum lot size of 5,000 sq. ft. for 5- and 6-story buildings. Overall, the changes were modest; it was a huge win for housing advocates everywhere." [emphasis added] Whereas other supporting Councillors, including Councillors McGovern and Toner have insisted that this was a real negotiation of various parties concerned with this upzoning, Councillor Azeem makes it clear here in his celebration of the "WIN" that any such changes were "MODEST"! That is indeed the case. Other than a one foot lowering of the heights of six-story projects, and a requirement that these be on 5,000 SF lots or larger, as well as moving back new developments from the property line to five feet from the property line, little else of merit was considered. And as many noted the shift from the property line to 5' inside the property line had more to do with fire protection and non-conforming properties in Cambridge than any real concession. And what about Paris? Specifically Haussmann's Paris that we see in the central city today. It must be remembered there are strict height and other design guidelines in Paris. This was also true in the period in which Haussmann's plans were under way from 1853 and 1870. The larger core of the Medieval city center was demolished, the historic Jewish and market quarters among these because they were thought to be overcrowded and ridden by disease. The glamorous wide avenues, squares, and parks came at the expense of many of the city's long term residents and the myriad homes in which they lived. In addition, the planned interior green spaces within each housing complex was clearly part of the goals aimed at making the city more modern and livable.  By way of conclusion, any primer on a subject as important a a massive citywide up-zoning should not only provide core, basic facts about the situation, but also accurate comparisons. This up-zoning successfully managed to remove core city planning and oversight of residential building city wide, leaving it up to the investors' and developers' own interests and how these projects "pencil" out (achieve the profit interests in play). The careful planning of Haussmann for Paris was very different in scope and impact. A more apt metaphor for what has happened in this Cambridge up-zoning is a combination of "move fast and break it" techno framing and let's sit back and simply let money talk. READ PART FIVE: HERE
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