Just a Start presents 35 Cherry St. affordable homeownership plan; board hears flood-resilience, accessibility questions

The Cambridge Planning Board on March 18 heard an informational update from the Community Development Department and developer Just A Start on a proposed affordable homeownership project at 35 Cherry Street, a city‑owned lot in the Port neighborhood.

The proposal, presented by Just A Start and city housing staff, would place three three‑story buildings on the roughly 10,000‑square‑foot city parcel. The project team described a development totaling about 14,000 square feet, organized as three buildings and a smaller rear unit, with roughly 10 homeownership units restricted to households earning up to 100 percent of the area median income and a mix of two‑ and three‑bedroom floor plans aimed at larger families.

Why it matters: the site was committed to the city as a long‑term community benefit and transferred to the Affordable Housing Trust; the project integrates long‑running community design principles adopted by the City Council and CDD, and it raises questions about flood resilience, accessibility and energy performance that the board emphasized at the meeting.

Anna Dolmage, senior manager for homeownership in the Housing Department, summarized the lot’s history, saying the parcel was acquired by MIT in 2003, dedicated to the city as a community benefit during later Kendall Square permitting and later transferred to the Affordable Housing Trust with community‑driven design guidelines attached. “The trust currently possesses ownership of the lot and put out an RFP that included the guidelines that had come out of the community process,” Dolmage said.

Noah Sawyer, director of real estate at Just A Start, and project manager Madeline Lee walked the board through the team’s response to those guidelines. Sawyer said Just A Start was selected in late 2023 and has worked with community planning, Davis Square Architects and CDD to develop a design that the team described as…