Planning Board urges City Council to reject petition that would ban paved paths wider than 10 feet in open-space zones

The Cambridge Planning Board voted 5-0 on Sept. 30 to recommend that the City Council not adopt a citizen zoning petition that would prohibit paved ways wider than 10 feet in the city’s open-space zoning districts. The motion, made by Planning Board member H. Theodore Cohen and seconded as recorded by “Miss Berry,” produced a unanimous roll-call in favor of a negative recommendation.

The petition, submitted by a group of registered Cambridge voters, proposed amendments to Sections 4.3 and 4.4 of the zoning ordinance to classify “paved way greater than 10 feet wide” as a prohibited principal use in open-space districts. The draft language would have defined “paved” broadly to include permeable and impermeable materials and listed paths, sidewalks, driveways, courts and similar surfaces as included. The petition also contained a provision limiting increases in paved lane area within a contiguous open-space area to no more than 2% of that area within a two-year period.

Petitioners framed the amendment as an implementation step for the city’s Urban Forest Master Plan (UFMP) and a response to canopy loss and localized heat islands. Petitioner Martin McCall…