The Cambridge City Council Monday approved a measure that eliminates single family zoning and clears the way for increased density as the state seeks to address its housing crunch.
Cambridge is the first in Massachusetts to take the step which allows four story residential buildings to be built as of right, or without a special approval process citywide. Six stories can also be built, permitted that developers designate 20 percent of the building’s units as affordable.
“We’re very excited and optimistic, but also measured,” said Councilor Burhan Azeem when asked about the ordinance’s expected impact to the city.
Azeem, a cosponsor, pointed to an analysis from the Cambridge community development department published earlier this year which showed a range of housing production projections based on several ordinance proposals.
Prior to the ordinance, he said city officials were expecting to add about 300 new units to the existing 55,000 over the next 15 years.
“With these amendments, we will see ten times as many units – 3,500 over the next 15 years – which, I think, is very exciting and a huge step forward,” Azeem said.
The vote came after a year of negotiating between supporters who sought to address housing and affordability issues and opponents who sought to preserve the look and feel of the neighborhoods they fell in love with.
“I think people really came around once they saw that at the six stories, we can get that higher amount of affordable units and units overall,” said Azeem, noting the near unanimous 8-1 approval.
Councilor Cathrine Zusy, the measure’s lone no vote, said her main issue with the plan is that it usurps Envision Cambridge, the city’s multimillion-dollar strategic plan, which promoted targeted density that would balance growth and preservation through the input of residents and neighborhood associations.
“Cambridge spent $3 million in three years and engaged 5,000 citizens” to develop the plan, Zusy told GBH News. “They said add 12,500 units by 2030, but they said to make sure that that’s smart growth, put that development along the corridors, transportation corridors in in squares and in transition districts.”
“To [now] allow developers to decide where they’re going to put the height without any input from neighbors is problematic,” she said.
Zusy predicted that the measure would also invite deep-pocketed developers to buy up existing housing, knock it down and turn it into more dense, higher-priced housing that would still make the city unaffordable for young people and families.
Within minutes of Monday’s ordinance passing, she received a copy of a message from a developer asking realtors to aggregate properties to expedite new building in Cambridge.
“They’re looking at housing not as a human need, but as a financial mechanism, and I think that’s something that’s problematic and needs to be dealt with at a state and federal level,” Zusy said.
The vote comes as other Massachusetts cities and towns struggle over how to contribute to alleviating the statewide housing shortage. Earlier this year, the state’s Supreme Judicial Court upheld the 2021 MBTA Communities Act – a law aimed at making new housing close to public transportation – is constitutional, as multiple municipalities sought to challenge the law.
Cambridge is one of the nation’s most expensive cities and with this ordinance, it has taken the opposite approach by adding spots for density, though councilor and former mayor Sumbul Siddiqui said housing pricing is unlikely to drastically change soon.
“I think we’re a very desirable city, but this is one tool to help with the housing scarcity that has been allowed because of the exclusionary zoning,” she told GBH News.
“I think the long-term hope is that [Cambridge] can show that it is possible and to allow more multifamily housing in your community. It’s possible to allow more height and density in your community. And I hope that others in other cities see that they can have this conversation.”
