Council committee advances citywide zoning changes to ease dimensional limits for religious uses

The Cambridge City Council ordinance committee voted Thursday to forward a zoning petition from Mushla Morazo et al to the full City Council with no recommendation, advancing a proposal that would alter how the city treats dimensional restrictions and other requirements for religious land uses citywide.

The petition would remove gross floor area (GFA) and floor-area-ratio (FAR) limits for religious uses, allow buildings used for religious purposes to rise up to six stories and 74 feet as-of-right in some districts, and change requirements tied to inclusionary housing, permeable open space, and neighborhood notification and meetings. The committee also voted to ask city staff and the city solicitor to revise proposed footnotes so that inclusionary requirements continue to apply where intended to non-religious uses and to strike two references that would have explicitly exempted religious uses from certain requirements.

City Solicitor (name not provided) told the committee the petition touches two legal frameworks that govern how municipalities treat religious institutions: the Dover Amendment (part of Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 40A) and the federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). "The Dover Amendment is state law. It's part of chapter 40A, the…