Cambridge Planning Board opens public hearing on two city‑council petitions to allow multifamily housing citywide

The Cambridge Planning Board on Nov. 12 heard a detailed presentation from Community Development Department staff on two related city‑council petitions that would amend the zoning map and ordinance to allow multifamily housing broadly across the city.

The petitions, introduced by the city council this year and presented to the Planning Board by Jeff Roberts of the Community Development Department (CDD) and Aaron Farouk, would (1) rezone most residential districts to a uniform Residence C1 district that permits multifamily and townhouse residences as of right (except open‑space districts), and (2) revise multiple articles of the zoning ordinance to standardize open‑space, review, and dimensional rules. Roberts said the package would also remove minimum lot size and lot‑area‑per‑unit requirements for residential uses, eliminate residential floor‑area‑ratio caps, and permit up to six stories above grade for residential uses in most districts while retaining separate nonresidential standards.

"The starting premise is that the solution to the problem lies both in affordable housing creation as well as in creation of market‑rate housing to impact supply," Aaron Farouk said, summarizing the housing committee's rationale for the petitions.

Roberts described seven principal components of the proposal and stressed several elements would not change: inclusionary housing thresholds and percent requirements remain in place, as do climate resilience and green‑factor standards and historic‑preservation/demolition‑delay rules. He also explained why the package is being processed as two petitions: a state amendment to the zoning statute (often called the housing‑choice amendment) treats some zoning changes differently for voting thresholds and requires separating certain amendments.

Staff said the AHO (Affordable Housing Overlay) would remain as‑of‑right and, under the proposed base zoning, could permit taller AHO projects (CDD projected AHO projects could be up to roughly 13 stories where the overlay applies). On review procedures, CDD proposed a more consistent approach: administrative review for smaller developments, special‑permit review for larger projects (with transportation studies where appropriate) and a new advisory consultation for an intermediate scale and for many affordable‑housing projects.

The presentation included land‑use context from Envision Cambridge and a regional framing tied to MBTA Communities requirements. Roberts noted the petitions are intended to reduce regulatory barriers that CDD says have an "exclusionary zoning" effect and make many existing buildings nonconforming.

Public comment followed immediately. Chair Mary Flynn said the board had received more than 140 written communications by the previous Friday at noon and reduced live speaking time to 1 minute 30 seconds because of the long sign‑up list.

The public record showed an evenly divided reaction: many younger and renter speakers urged the board to recommend the petitions to the city council as a necessary step to increase supply and affordability. Opponents — including long‑time residents and neighborhood associations — said the sweeping, citywide changes risk demolishing naturally occurring affordable housing, overwhelming local infrastructure (water, sewer, parking, traffic), harming the urban tree canopy and solar access, and changing neighborhood character. Several speakers asked for more analyses of infrastructure, climate impacts (including embodied carbon from demolition/rebuild), and distributional safeguards (for example, limiting as‑of‑right height increases to corridors and squares, or expanding inclusionary obligations to smaller projects).

"We will lose a lot of naturally occurring affordable housing," Lee Farris of the Cambridge Residents Alliance said, urging protections or amendments that require inclusionary units in more projects.

Staff repeatedly noted that inclusionary housing requirements for projects that meet the numeric threshold remain unchanged and that several planning safeguards (green‑factor, climate resilience) are not part of the petition changes.

After extended public comment, the board voted by roll call to continue the hearing to Nov. 19, 2024, to allow members time to digest materials and for the ordinance committee to hold its first hearing. The motion passed with all six members present voting in favor.

Next steps: the Planning Board will receive additional written comments submitted by the deadline ahead of next week's continuation; the ordinance committee will hold an informational hearing Nov. 19 at 2 p.m., and the city council's process will follow the ordinance committee recommendation and the statutory timelines described by CDD.

(Reporting based on the Nov. 12, 2024 Cambridge Planning Board hearing transcript; quotes and attributions are drawn from the hearing record.)