Planning Board urges City Council not to adopt petition limiting paved paths in Cambridge parks

The Cambridge Planning Board voted 5-0 on Sept. 30 to recommend that the City Council not adopt a citizen petition to amend sections 4.3 and 4.4 of the zoning ordinance to prohibit paved ways greater than 10 feet wide in open-space districts and to limit increases in paved lanes to 2% of a contiguous open-space area every two years.

The petitioners, led by petitioner Martin McCall, said the proposal aims to preserve trees and reduce heat-island effects by restricting new or wider paved paths in parks. McCall told the board the change was consistent with the Urban Forest Master Plan and that “wider is faster and faster is not safer,” urging the board to act to protect mature trees and lower speeds on multiuse paths.

Board members and city staff said the issue raised important concerns about trees, stormwater infiltration and safety but concluded zoning is not the right tool. Mary Flynn, chair of the Cambridge Planning Board, read staff and board discussion into the record and said the board’s recommendation to the council should explain potential unintended consequences and preserve the city’s flexibility to design parks and pathways through neighborhood processes.

Why it matters: The petition would have imposed a dimensional limit in the zoning ordinance that petitioners said would curb expansion of paved corridors in public parks and open spaces, preserve canopy, and discourage high speeds by bicyclists and motorized micro‑vehicles on shared paths. City staff and multiple board members countered that the petition’s language…