Planning Board recommends Cambridge Street zoning changes to allow 8‑ to 15‑story pockets, ties height to active ground‑floor uses

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — The Cambridge Planning Board voted unanimously Oct. 21 to recommend that the City Council adopt a zoning petition to create four Cambridge Street base districts, raise baseline corridor heights and allow greater height in three targeted subareas when projects provide active ground‑floor uses and meet zoning design standards.

City staff described the petition as the implementation step for the Our Cambridge Street planning study (2023) and said it follows the same broad strategy used in the Mass. Ave. petition: increase residential capacity on major mixed‑use corridors while incentivizing pedestrian‑oriented ground floor uses and requiring urban design standards and stepbacks.

Zoning details: the petition would create Cam‑8 as the primary corridor district, with Cam‑10 (Inman Square), Cam‑12 (Webster/Windsor and toward Boynton Yards), and Cam‑15 (Lechmere) as higher‑intensity…