Cambridge’s Multifamily Housing Ordinance works! Tell the Council and CDD not to roll it back.

tl;dr: Thursday, June 25 at 12:30 pm, the Council’s Housing and Neighborhood & Long-Term Planning Committees meet to consider deeply flawed proposed amendments to Cambridge’s Multifamily Housing Ordinance (MFH). We need your support! Email and sign up to comment now to protect the 885 net new homes and 134 permanently affordable inclusionary homes in the pipeline!

ABC members pushed for zoning reform to end exclusionary zoning and build more homes. CDD’s amendments build fewer.

The Community Development Department (CDD) presentation confirms that the MFH ordinance is working. Multifamily housing proposals are advancing across the city. New multifamily buildings are appearing in neighborhoods like West Cambridge that haven’t seen them in decades and have even seen total housing decrease due to down-conversions of multifamily homes into single-family homes.

CDD projects that the ordinance will produce more than a 10x increase in housing growth over previous zoning by 2030. The 100% Affordable Housing Overlay pipeline is also very strong. Both are necessary to reach our Envision Cambridge housing and affordable housing goals, where we are currently falling short.

And yet, instead of touting that success, CDD is proposing major amendments when shovels are not yet in the ground and permits have not yet been granted for most proposals. CDD proposes substantially increasing setbacks, significantly shrinking the buildable footprint on every residential lot in the city, with no analysis of the impact in terms of fewer homes, greater non-conformity of existing homes, decreased property tax revenue, or creation of many more parcels that are effectively non-buildable. Virtually every project currently in the permitting pipeline would be forced to redesign from scratch. 

CDD acknowledges that most new inclusionary projects are “moving more slowly into construction,” while omitting the fact that the same housing opponents seeking these amendments are the ones causing these delays, as we have documented extensively with regard to 56 proposed homes at Huron and Wyman and other proposals in the exclusionary Mid-Cambridge Neighborhood Conservation District and elsewhere. That means the bulk of the pipeline is pre-permit. Even modest changes to setback rules would require developers to restart the design and permitting process, delaying or blocking homes that Cambridge residents desperately need.

CDD calls these changes minor. But they never quantify the housing cost! They cannot simultaneously claim that multifamily zoning is working and propose changes that shrink what zoning allows, without telling us how many homes, including how many permanently affordable inclusionary homes, disappear as a result, how that impacts our Envision Cambridge housing goals, how it impacts the City's budget, or how much it drives up permitting and housing costs. We have already heard of several proposals that would lose more than half of their homes, and possibly all affordable inclusionary homes, or not be able to continue forward if CDD’s amendments are enacted. These are not minor impacts.

Additionally, their presentation completely ignores the fact that the annual resident survey showed that both before and after MFH passed, housing affordability is far and away the most important issue to Cambridge residents. These amendments turn their back on the tens of thousands of residents struggling with housing affordability to appease a small number of housing opponents who will never be appeased.

What opponents of housing are actually saying.

Councillor Zusy, the lone vote against MFH last term, has described the MFH ordinance that ended exclusionary zoning in Cambridge as “actively destroying the fabric of our neighborhoods.” She has posted inflammatory social media posts while blocking constituents and spread misinformation about the ordinance she wants to repeal, while refusing to acknowledge any tradeoffs. This kind of rhetoric has consequences; using charged language stokes fear and anger and has already contributed to a climate in which someone was targeted with a “Wanted” poster distributed in the community. That is not civic discourse, and it is highly irresponsible for an elected official to stoke it.

Her office has even created a public tracker of every property in Cambridge that might be redeveloped or renovated, although conflating proposals that arise under the MFH, AHO, or neither. 

But that same tracker tells a different story than Councillor Zusy intends. According to her own data, the MFH ordinance is on track to produce 885 net new homes in Cambridge. And when redevelopment does occur, it generates 134 permanently affordable inclusionary homes that would not exist under the old zoning, far more than the number of homes being replaced. With thousands of Cambridge households on the affordable housing waitlist, those are homes our neighbors—who make up the true fabric of our neighborhoods—desperately need! 

The Flaherty/Zusy Policy Order is even worse!

Alongside CDD’s amendments, the committees are also taking up Policy Order 2026-123, co-sponsored by Councillors Flaherty and Zusy. CDD’s presentation flags the most damaging element: a requirement for one off-street parking space per dwelling unit above four units, citywide. Cambridge eliminated parking minimums in 2022 precisely because they make housing much more expensive (a recent AHO proposal put the cost at $300,000 per spot!) and much less feasible to build. Reinstating them now would be a major step backward. 

The policy order also proposes restricting 6-story buildings to a small handful of Cambridge’s largest thoroughfares, causing significant harm to housing production, and as CDD notes, with the greatest negative impact on inclusionary projects, the very buildings that produce permanently affordable homes. It would also impose a maximum building wall length, effectively adding another layer of setback requirements on top of the ones already proposed. You cannot say you support affordable housing in Cambridge while proposing or supporting amendments (and the Brown zoning petition) with incredibly harmful effects on building more affordable homes in Cambridge.

What You Can Do

The committees need to hear from you for tomorrow’s 12:30 pm hearing. Tell them:

• The MFH ordinance is working. The data shows more housing, more equitably distributed, with a strong AHO pipeline. Don’t change the rules, and don’t harm all the homes already in the queue.
  
  
• Reject the Flaherty/Zusy amendments and parking mandate. Parking minimums block housing, drive up housing costs, and increase cars and traffic. Cambridge already made this decision, reflected in an 8-1 Council vote, back in 2022.
  
  
• Inflammatory online rhetoric by Councillors about “destroying the fabric of our neighborhoods” is harmful and has no place in Cambridge. Councillors have a responsibility to lead with facts, not fear.
• Any amendments must be accompanied by an honest accounting of how many homes, including permanently affordable inclusionary homes, are lost. CDD has failed to provide that analysis. The committees must demand it before voting on anything.

That said, a few reasonable proposals are on the table:

1. Average unit size limits to encourage a greater number of smaller, less expensive homes. It remains unclear to us why this has not already been drafted and enacted following CDD's June 25, 2025 Policy Order response. Also, it is incorrect that single-family home size cannot be regulated, see 81 Spooner Road LLC v. Town of Brookline, 452 Mass. 692 (2008).
2. Street parking permit limitations (cap and lottery?) to address concerns about significant impacts to a particular block or intersection, like Ellery and Broadway. 
3. Notification and process refinements to share information about proposals, which must include CDD chairing meetings to explain the City’s housing and affordability goals, the process and scope, to designate a point of contact for construction, and to take place only after multifamily proposals have received initial feedback from all relevant City departments. It makes little sense to present plans that may change significantly following input from City staff.
   

How to participate

Sign up to speak in person or via Zoom at cambridgema.gov/publiccomment. Write to the full City Council at [email protected], CC [email protected], [email protected] and [email protected], and BCC us at [email protected]. Let them know:

• You oppose any amendments that would weaken Cambridge’s multifamily zoning, decrease housing production, and increase rents
• Parking minimums are a huge step backward, blocking housing and increasing traffic and emissions
• The 6-story affordable bonus must remain available across all neighborhoods, not just major streets
• While setback flexibility is fine, increasing setbacks will reduce homes, particularly permanently affordable inclusionary homes, and must be rejected. An average unit size limit is a much better way to ensure more homes and affordability.

Click here to pre-populate a short email and please share this alert with neighbors, friends, and anyone who cares about housing in Cambridge!

The hearing is at 12:30 pm, Thursday, June 25, in the Sullivan Chamber, City Hall, 795 Massachusetts Avenue, and on Zoom.

Thank you for standing up for a Cambridge with more homes where residents can afford to live!