Cambridge committee hears proposal to ease zoning limits for religious institutions amid RLUIPA concerns

The Cambridge Ordinance Committee heard presentations and public comment Tuesday on a petition by Musla Morasio et al. seeking broad changes to the city zoning code to treat religious uses more like residential uses in several districts. Attorneys for the petitioners said the changes would remove gross floor area (GFA) and floor-area-ratio (FAR) limits for religious uses, allow unconstrained additions to pre‑existing nonconforming structures when used for religion, and permit religious buildings in some Residence C1 areas to reach six stories (up to 74 feet) without meeting inclusionary housing requirements or neighborhood notification requirements.

The petitioners’ lawyers argued the amendments respond to legal risk under federal law. “The Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act is very, very specific,” Weil Gotshal attorney Yehuda Buckowitz told the committee. Buckowitz said RLUIPA creates three protections — a substantial‑burden standard, an anti‑discrimination standard and an equal‑terms standard — and that “municipalities face serious risks” if zoning is applied in a way that substantially burdens religious exercise.

The proposal matters because, petitioners and their counsel said, the city’s amended residential rules…