While Councilors prefer to receive personal messages from constituents, A Better Cambridge has drafted the following sample letter to help you craft your own message to the City Council. Please also review our full talking points available here.

Messages should be directed to [email protected] which reaches all 9 councilors (or see the City Council website for their individual email addresses). Please also CC the City Clerk at [email protected].

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Dear Cambridge City Council:

I am writing to express my support for Mayor Maher, Vice Mayor Benzan, and Councilor McGovern’s policy order on the issue of a master plan in Cambridge. As a Cambridge resident, I believe we need strong, community-based urban planning that helps build housing now in our city. I support policy order 15 because it will ensure equity through a planning process facilitated by the professional staff of Cambridge’s Community Development Department, rather than politicized under the auspices of City Council committees.

I support the Maher/Benzan/McGovern policy order and believe any new planning process should achieve the following goals:

• Ensure a fair planning process guided by CDD’s professional staff, rather than controlled by City Council committees;

• Allow for the immediate and continued production of new housing, including the availability of standard zoning tools such as special permits and density bonuses for additional housing;

• Recognize the significant community input and public resources already contributed to K2C2 and similar planning efforts. To disregard K2C2 would set a bad precedent, and would bring into question the viabilityof any new community-based planning initiatives in Cambridge; and,

• Recognize that density is key to achieving Cambridge’s sustainability goals by planning for walking, biking, and public transportation to reduce car dependency citywide.