It's time to build more housing in Cambridge.

For years, we have been asking the City Council to end the “exclusionary zoning” rules which make it nearly impossible to build new apartment buildings in most of Cambridge’s neighborhoods. These rules were designed in the 20th century to keep the city economically and racially segregated. In the past few decades, Cambridge has added thousands and thousands of well-paying jobs, but kept it illegal to build enough homes for those new workers here. Housing prices have predictably skyrocketed, and communities have been displaced. It’s long past time for the Council to act.

Now, they might finally do it. Following a Housing Committee proposal to legalize six-story multi-family housing citywide, CDD has drafted zoning language for the Council to approve, and it needs your support.

CDD presentation (Aug ‘24): Multifamily Housing Citywide

Boston Globe (May ‘24): A Cambridge City Council panel’s proposal would legalize six-story buildings. Everywhere.

“Our most successful affordable housing policy historically has been inclusionary zoning,” Siddiqui said. “But we know solving the housing crisis is about using as many policies as we have at our disposal. When you allow more density, you’re allowing our inclusionary zoning to generate more affordable housing.”

Fall 2024 is a crucial season; we expect 5 key hearings and meetings where your support will make a big impact. Here's what you can do:

What is in the Multifamily Housing Citywide proposal?

The technical details are in the Community Development Department’s August presentation. Here’s a summary:

  • The zoning principles are to zone equitably across neighborhoods, reduce zoning barriers to multifamily housing, and focus on getting more affordable inclusionary units.
  • The zoning proposal is to regulate residential buildings by number of “stories above grade” (up to 6) and open space (at least 30% of lot area in neighborhoods), rather than with density restrictions. All new buildings with 10 or more units or 10,000 sq ft would continue to be required to offer 20% affordable housing, i.e. “inclusionary zoning.”
  • The permitting requirements would be simplified: Buildings larger than 50,000 sq ft would require a community meeting, and buildings larger than 75,000 sq ft would require a discretionary special permit.
  • If passed, the City estimates 4,880 new units will be built by 2040 (920 affordable) across ~270 new buildings citywide. But under current zoning, the City estimates only 350 new units will be built by 2040 (and only 30 affordable).
  • Check out this great video on how adding market-rate units will help create affordability for everyone!

What has the process behind this proposal been? Where will it go from here?

In early 2024, the City Council passed a policy order asking the Housing Committee to discuss concepts for promoting multifamily housing citywide.

On May 8, the Housing Committee voted unanimously in support of ending exclusionary zoning. At the hearing, Harvard professor Jason Furman, one of President Obama's top economists and a Cambridge resident, testified in favor of allowing more height and density. Paul Williams, Executive Director of the Center for Public Enterprise and one of America's top experts on social housing, also spoke in strong support.

The concept was fleshed out by Councillors and CDD staff at further Housing Committee hearings in June, July, and August, before being referred back to the full City Council in September 2024.

The zoning is now being formally introduced as a “zoning petition,” kicking off an Ordinance Committee hearing and a Planning Board hearing, before returning to the full City Council for two final ordination votes. CDD will also hold community meetings during this time, and we encourage you to attend.

Your support at these hearings and meetings will help persuade Councillors to hold the line and do what’s right for Cambridge’s future. This means showing up to give public comment and emailing city councillors at each of these meetings, as they need to “feel the love” amidst written and verbal opposition.

What should I say in my emails / public comment for City Council?

The best public comment, email to City Council, or letter to the Cambridge Day is personal. Feel free to let the City Council know how the high cost of housing has affected you and your community or why you oppose regressive and exclusionary zoning in Cambridge. Below are some talking points to help - feel free to pick and choose:

  • The City Council should take bold action to allow up to 6-story apartments in every neighborhood because more housing benefits everyone.
  • Cambridge urgently needs lots more housing, but its zoning makes it impossible to build enough new apartments. This zoning was exclusionary from the beginning, designed to enforce segregation by class and race.
  • As the city keeps adding more jobs than homes, rents have sky-rocketed and homeownership has become a distant dream for most new families.
  • Building more housing will improve affordability for everyone. This includes:
    • Renters afraid of how much their rent will go up next year
    • Prospective first-time home-buyers who want to start building housing equity but can’t afford the eye-popping prices
    • Existing homeowners who want to expand so more of their family can live together
    • Middle-income households who don’t qualify for subsidized housing but struggle to afford rent
    • Low-income households who are on the long waitlist for subsidized housing but could move into one of the hundreds of newly-created inclusionary units City staff estimate these changes will create
    • Voucher-holders who can’t find an apartment because there are not enough available but could use their voucher for an inclusionary unit
    • Young people thinking of leaving the area due to housing costs
    • Older parents worried their children will never be able to afford to live in Cambridge
    • Seniors who want an accessible unit where they can age in place
    • New families trying to stay in Cambridge to take advantage of its excellent public schools
    • Taxpayers who will benefit under Prop 2.5 from more households
    • Everyone who wants to call Cambridge home
  • Research shows that new housing lowers nearby rents, benefitting even those who don’t move into new housing themselves.
  • Thank you to the City Council and city staff for doing important work on housing. I support new housing because it makes Cambridge a more affordable and inclusive city.

    • In addition, it is encouraged to state your name and street address. If you're writing an email, the subject line can be anything like "Support for multifamily housing" or "Please end exclusionary zoning"; make sure to address it to [email protected] (cc [email protected] and bcc [email protected]).

    Examples of comments from previous meetings:

    Ajay: "Right now, motivation [of being able to own a home] is coming to an all time low. And the maintenance/repair costs of the housing in Cambridge and the suburbs makes it even harder to get a down payment and the necessary repairs together. Please support this so my family can get a home."

    Santhi: "For people with limited mobility / disabilities, having more housing options that are ADA compliant would be REALLY HELPFUL!"

    Neil: "Walking through Cambridgeport, you can see why the status quo of our zoning is no longer tenable. Look at the former site of Pearl St Market! Proposed zoning could have given Cambridgeport a building with a variety of unit sizes, inclusionary units, for people of all ages, etc. But instead we got 5 homes going for over a million and a half dollars each."

    Jess: "Renters, particularly lower income renters, know very well that you can't have everything, because the rent eats first. We talk a lot about people who are displaced by rising rents, and that is important, but sometimes I think we forget about the sacrifices required of even those who can stay. People work second and third jobs to afford rent here, sacrificing time with family, time they can't get back. They reduce retirement contributions, putting their futures at risk - and this is especially important for younger people, who have been paying into social security their whole working lives with no guarantee they'll be able to collect when it's their turn. People delay medical and dental care in order to afford rent here. Those tradeoffs are hard, but people make them because they have a connection to this city. Maybe their dream job is here, or their kids love their public school, or they have disabled or elderly family members they want to stay close to. Whatever the reason, people make major life sacrifices every day to afford to continue renting here.

    So when I hear people saying, yes, we need more housing, but it can't be too tall, or we want more housing but it must look a certain way, or we need new housing, but not in the neighborhoods, they're not engaging with the reality of those tradeoffs. Renters can tell you, you can't have everything you want, so it is a matter of what we want more: slow the extreme rise in rents, or keep the city looking a certain way.

    You can't say you want to end exclusionary zoning except for all the elements that make it exclusionary. That is the design review process. That is setbacks. That is height limits in the neighborhoods - and by the way, if people live there, it's a neighborhood, you don't need picket fences for that, you just need people."

Frequently Asked Questions

For many decades, production of new homes has been falling far behind growth in population and jobs in Cambridge.[1] Our region’s healthy economy has attracted many jobs and job-seekers. Cambridge’s biotech and tech cluster and walkable neighborhoods have drawn many companies, including those newly aware of the effects of sprawling development on the climate, as well as families wanting to spend less time in their cars. We’ve created more than 30,000 jobs in biotech and tech alone in the last 15 years but we only added around 8,700 units in the same period - on top of increased job pressure from Boston creating housing demand in Cambridge. Our shortage is part of a national housing shortage where an estimated 4.5 million new homes are needed to fill the gap.[2]

As usually happens when demand greatly exceeds supply, this imbalance has put substantial upward pressure on rents and home prices. Cambridge’s housing costs are among the highest in the nation, at 150% of the national average.[3] Kids who grow up in Cambridge can’t afford to stay. Long-time residents and families can’t afford to keep up with rising rents and get pushed out. High housing costs also drive homelessness. Massachusetts has the 4th highest cost of living in the country, and housing costs are Massachusetts is becoming less competitive and Greater Boston’s economic viability is at risk.

Finally, building housing is critical to meet Cambridge’s racial equity and income mobility goals. Greater Boston is consistently cited as one of the most segregated metro areas in the country, and high housing costs is a chief contributor to preventing further integration between communities.

1: Housing supply lags in MA
2: National housing shortage
3: Cambridge Cost of Living

In the early 1900s, when an increase in population pushed up housing costs, land-owners and home-builders responded by building more housing. The 1912 arrival of the subway in Harvard Square and related trolley construction led to triple-deckers and then apartment buildings on main thoroughfares and nearby side streets.

After race-based zoning was outlawed in Buchanan v. Warley in 1917, zoning boards used dimensional standards as a surrogate mechanism to keep minorities out of wealthy neighborhoods. By mandating metrics such as minimum lot areas per dwelling units, floor area to lot area ratios, open space requirements, and setbacks, zoning board members could de facto outlaw less expensive forms of housing, like triple deckers and apartment buildings, instead allowing only single-family homes that were unaffordable to minority populations that had much lower average incomes and levels of wealth.

For more, see "A City Which is Desireable and Obtainable" (a report by William MacArthur) or video remarks by Harvard Law Professor and former Cambridge Planning Board member Niko Bowie.

The goal of this initiative is not only to build more housing, but to build income-restricted affordable housing through the inclusionary zoning program. Cambridge's inclusionary zoning program requires medium-to-large residential buildings to offer 20% of their units as below-market-rate affordable housing. However, given high construction costs in Greater Boston (and especially Cambridge), estimates show that this is not financially feasible without the economies of scale provided by six-story buildings.

Six stories citywide also allows Cambridge to increase housing - especially in historically exclusive neighborhoods - while maintaining a human-scale look and feel. Harvard Street, Franklin Street, and Linnaean Street have many examples of four-to-six-story buildings that fit in perfectly with their neighborhoods.

(Lastly, you may have heard fear-mongering about "7.5-story equivalents". In residential neighborhoods, the proposed zoning has a height limit of 75 feet, which allows for greater floor-to-ceiling space, rooftop mechanicals, flood protections, etc. But there is also a written limit of at most six "stories above grade". Shorter ceilings were more popular in the 80's and 90's, but buildings these days have more than ten feet between floors.)

Commonly-Raised Concerns / Rebutting Misinformation

  • No, real estate development occurs slowly and sporadically. It can take many years or decades for parcel owners to choose to sell for redevelopment. The report from City staff expects no additional redevelopment above the existing baseline.
  • Most parcels, including most with two-story buildings and virtually all triple deckers that occupy most of a parcel, will not be redeveloped as they are too valuable to only add another 3-4 stories - the development and construction costs are not worth it and such a project would be unprofitable. These parcels will likely keep their existing form and setbacks, even if they are sold.
  • When properties that are economically feasible to redevelop are sold, they may be replaced with multi-family housing up to six stories under this zoning petition. For example, a small single-family house on a large lot may be redeveloped into a six-story, 10-unit building with 2 affordable units. This is a good thing, and it will be a gradual process that still will include public oversight and be subject to the zoning, building, and fire codes.
  • “It doesn’t mean people are going to wake up and discover a ‘manhattanized’ Cambridge,” Magda Maaoui, a professor at the Graduate School of Design, wrote in an email. “Change is slow, and will most likely still happen through isolated, contextual, nondisruptive ways.”

  • Affordable (i.e., subsidized) Housing helps lower income individuals exclusively, but market rate helps everyone, including middle income folks, and through filtering, also lower income.
  • This zoning would add an estimated 920 affordable units under Inclusionary Zoning. At a cost of approximately $900,000 per unit, that amounts to $828 million in affordable housing completely subsidized by the developers, in perpetuity, at no financial cost to the taxpayers.[7]
  • We can’t rely on the government to build the affordable housing for us. The money just isn’t there from city, state, and federal governments - we wish it was. If you do the math, we’d need 30-40,000 units x $600,000/unit, with an average subsidy needed of $432,000 to create one unit of affordable housing, or roughly $18-24 billion dollars of money (all-in) to go to develop the houses we need. To put that in perspective, Cambridge’s 2025 total operating budget is just under a billion dollars, and the affordable housing trust fund’s budget is 41 million dollars.
  • As the economic literature shows us, even single buildings can add slack to the housing market, but we need to build a lot of buildings to see major change.

7: CDD estimates of housing creation under this policy

Numerous studies show that adding housing supply helps limit housing cost increases. In addition, CDD estimates the new zoning could create 920 new subsidized homes through Inclusionary Zoning by 2040. According to CDD’s estimate, these changes should put us back on track toward meeting our goal from Envision Cambridge of creating 3,175 new affordable homes by 2030.

Urban planning literature has shown that just as the principles of supply and demand accurately describe how rents (i.e. the cost of housing) increase as demand for housing increases without supply increasing proportionally, they predict what would happen if more housing were built: rents would decrease (or increase at a slower rate). Conversely, as people left cities, like New York, during the pandemic and demand for housing decreased, rents quickly decreased. Currently (and for decades) in Cambridge, the population and demand for housing have been increasing, so we must increase supply, if we don’t want rents to continue increasing to even higher levels. Similar to housing, we can see this happening with lab space in Greater Boston: as more labs have been built, rents have decreased, as predicted by the fundamental economics of supply and demand.

  • Cambridge has added many times more jobs than homes over the past few decades.
  • Prices have gone up, but they would likely have gone up more if housing were even more scarce.

  • No, our old buildings are poorly insulated and not built with modern sustainability standards. New buildings are more sustainable, validated by National Renewable Energy Lab data and analysis.
  • The real gains in Cambridge come from increasing density. Apartments have much lower energy costs than single-family homes, and the carbon footprint in Cambridge is dramatically lower than surrounding towns.
  • Infill multifamily housing is by far the most environmentally friendly form of housing. The alternative sprawl induces car dependence and polluting commutes and causes deforestation. Multi-family homes are much more environmentally friendly than single-family, with shared walls and more efficient heating systems.

    • Similar to height restrictions, these serve the purpose of preventing multi-family housing from being built, especially on many existing lots in Cambridge that have irregular shapes and dimensions:

    • Lot area per dwelling unit limits the number of units that can be built based on the size of a lot.
    • FAR (floor area ratio) limits the size of buildings based on the size of the lot.
    • Setbacks limit how close a building can be to the lot lines.
    • Open space limits the percentage of the parcel that can be built on.

    • The Cambridge Tree Protection Ordinance still applies and is not being modified by this effort.
    • 30% open space will be required on parcels in residential districts.
    • Cantabrigians will continue to enjoy Cambridge's public parks and open space. Plus, building more housing here will reduce sprawl outside the city.

    Yes, absolutely, every city needs to build! After Cambridge passed the 100% Affordable Housing Overlay, other municipalities passed similar ordinances, including Somerville and Boston, and we expect a similar effect from ending exclusionary zoning. Additionally, some municipalities have gone above and beyond the bare minimum in response to the MBTA Communities Act, including Brookline, Arlington, and Lexington. A Better Cambridge is part of Abundant Housing Massachusetts, with member organizations in municipalities across Massachusetts working to legalize housing. This is another opportunity for Cambridge to take leadership, and given we are one of the few cities adjacent to Boston, the argument for density is strongest here.

    The vast majority of buildings in Cambridge are not historic, they are simply old. We have no shortage of buildings in Cambridge that are already designated historic, as we have had a process in place for decades to designate buildings as historical landmarks. CDD has confirmed historic buildings would still have to go through the Historical Commission process, so they will remain protected.

    Subsidized inclusionary units are required for 10+ unit or 10,000 sq ft developments. Today in Cambridge the vast majority of housing developments don’t reach the scale required to generate inclusionary units. CDD estimates that under current zoning, less than 1% of developments will result in one or more inclusionary units by 2040. Given current zoning rarely allows builders to go significantly above 10 units, there is an incentive to stay below 10. Once the ability to go up to dozens of units and beyond is unlocked, it will become more attractive to build inclusionary units.

    The AHO is also getting a height boost to preserve affordable housing developers' advantage, up to 13 stories in neighborhoods and 15 stories in squares. This is important because building between 7 and 11 stories is sometimes referred to as a a no man’s land, due to increased costs from high-rise building requirements kicking in.

    • Cambridge has a much higher percentage of land dedicated to residential housing; other cities have much higher densities of commercial and industrial space. Think of Boston with empty rail yards and highway interchanges in Allston, the Financial District and Back Bay commercial districts, and the entirety of Logan Airport. All this space doesn’t count toward population density, so Boston has a lower population density than Cambridge, even though it clearly has many neighborhoods that are denser than Cambridge’s.
    • Cambridge had 120,000 residents in 1950, which is a bit more than we have today, and now we have much more land available for residential uses that used to be industrial!
    • Cambridge is the #1 global biotech leader and ~#2 tech leader in the country and arguably the world. As an economic hub with a high density of jobs, it would make sense to have a high population density, too. It only is an artifact of history and exclusionary zoning policy that our housing growth has been stunted compared to our economic growth.
    • Higher population density supports local businesses and cultural amenities, contributes to lively neighborhoods and streetlife, and justifies investments in and improvements to public transit service.

    Traffic actually may decrease if more people can live near their work instead of commuting into Cambridge from outside of the city, because there isn’t enough housing in Cambridge for people to be able to to live near their place of employment. New residential construction can still include parking, if that is an amenity new residents want. However, many Cambridge residents don’t own cars, and not requiring parking offers a more affordable option for those who don’t want to pay for an unused parking spot. 33% of all Cambridge households have no vehicles available at home, and nearly 50% of multi-person households have only one car available.[4]

    4: 33% of all Cambridge households have no vehicles: CDD Survey

    • Research shows that increasing the supply of new housing improves housing affordability.
    • Cambridge’s residential property tax rate is consistently quite low compared to nearby municipalities, and amongst the lowest of any city with robust civil services nationally. [5]
    • Property values also should slow their growth rates or decrease.
    • Having more new market rate housing will ease pressure on older housing units which become naturally affordable housing over time. Just like how making more new cars reduces used car prices for households with lower incomes. This effect is called filtering.[6]
    • Further, this is expected to create hundreds of affordable units. CDD estimated that this zoning change would result in the creation of 920 inclusionary units by 2040, compare to just 30 under current zoning


    5: Cambridge has quite low tax rates compared to nearby municipalities: Cambridge Day
    6: Filtering is shown to work: Noahopinion

    • Unfortunately what ends up happening is the wealthy people still show up and outbid middle and lower income people. They have the ability to pay to live where they want.
    • Broad affordability, with enough housing for everyone, is the solution.

    • Cambrige’s inclusionary zoning policy requires that 20% of new homes are priced to be affordable in developments with 10 or more units.. These units have permanently deed restricted affordability requirements that never expire. Because these affordable units are provided by private developers, inclusionary zoning creates affordable housing without any public money. To date, Cambridge has created 1,100 affordable homes through Inclusionary Zoning.
    • Inclusionary units in Cambridge are restricted to households making between 50% an 80% of area median income or to households with Section 8 vouchers.
    • More than half of households living in inclusionary housing in Cambridge make below 50% of area median income.

    • Social housing and community land trusts must follow zoning. Allowing apartments city-wide creates more opportunities for these models as well. Paul Williams, Executive Director of the Center for Public Enterprise and one of America's top experts on social housing, testified in support.
    • Many definitions of social housing would include all homes built using the 100% Affordable Housing Overlay, which is getting a boost under this proposal.

  • Some other recent zoning petitions would eliminate “exclusionary zoning” or single-family zoning in name only, with height and density restrictions that still effectively render apartments economically infeasible. Take a look at new housing being built in existing multi-family districts, such as the new single-family along Pearl St. in Cambridgeport. Current dimensional restrictions in multi-family zones actually prevent new multi-family housing and the inclusionary affordable units that could come with them.
  • ABC and its endorsed councillors have been advocating for bold zoning reform for years. This proposal meets the moment.

  • The proposed zoning would require 30% open space, and Cambridge also requires green roofs for larger buildings. Cambridge also eliminated mandatory parking minimums, which created asphalt parking lots that contribute to the heat island effect.
  • Most importantly, multifamily infill housing is environmentally friendly and energy efficient, reducing sprawl, deforestation, and lengthy polluting car commutes.