Cambridge Planning Board sends concerns to council on petition to equalize rules for religious uses

The Cambridge Planning Board on July 8 transmitted a set of comments to the City Council on a zoning petition that would place religious uses on the same dimensional footing as residential uses in parts of the city, but stopped short of recommending adoption. The board’s action followed legal presentations, a petitioner presentation, and public comment about neighborhood impacts and legal risk.

The petition, filed by Mushla Marazzo et al. with Lubavitch of Cambridge among its proponents, would amend parts of the Cambridge zoning ordinance (as referenced in the petition and Table 5.1) to remove gross floor area and floor-area-ratio limitations for religious uses; allow conforming additions to nonconforming structures for religious uses; and permit religious uses to be treated like residential uses for dimensional limits, including allowing buildings up to six stories (up to 74 feet) without triggering inclusionary-housing requirements in some cases. It would also change notification and open-space provisions as applied to religious uses.

The board’s nut graf: members said the petition raises planning questions about neighborhood impacts and “intensity of use” that they want the City Council and city departments to weigh alongside the legal analysis the law department provided and the proponents’ arguments.

Megan Baer, city solicitor, summarized the law department’s written opinion for the board, describing two principal legal frameworks that shape the issue. “The Dover Amendment” (Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 40A, §3) prevents local ordinances from prohibiting religious and nonprofit educational…