Thanks to our collective efforts, CDD projects that the multifamily housing ordinance will produce more than a 10x increase in housing growth over Cambridge's previous exclusionary zoning by 2030, including 660 permanently affordable inclusionary homes. The 100% Affordable Housing Overlay (AHO) pipeline is also very strong, with more than 1,000 affordable homes in the pipeline since it passed. All of these homes are vital to reaching our Envision Cambridge housing goals, where we are currently falling short.

Instead, former City Council candidate Doug Brown and a handful of other NIMBY petitioners seek to substantially limit new housing in Cambridge, leading to down-conversions of multifamily homes to larger, more expensive single-family homes and many fewer permanently affordable homes built via the AHO, Inclusionary Housing, or a future social housing ordinance.

The Brown downzoning petition would also decrease property tax revenue and increase costs for existing homeowners and renters, cause greater non-conformity of existing homes, and create many more parcels that are effectively non-buildable. As CDD's new memo explains, if the Brown petition passed, virtually every inclusionary or affordable project currently in the permitting pipeline would either be scrapped or forced to redesign from scratch, and the cost to build would skyrocket. 

These petitioners want the people of Cambridge to turn their back on the thousands of residents struggling with housing affordability. But with thousands of Cambridge households on the affordable housing waitlist, the Planning Board and Council must reject this effort to block affordable housing Cambridge families desperately need! 

What You Can Do

6:30 pm, Tuesday, July 14 - Planning Board meeting

3 pm, Tuesday, July 21 - Ordinance Committee meeting

Send one email for both meetings to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], and bcc [email protected]. You can put "Report the Brown Downzoning Petition Unfavorably" in the subject line.

For the 6:30 pm July 14 Planning Board meeting, you can sign up for Zoom now and give public comment at the meeting. https://cambridgema.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_dbOd2-qKTgukLW0THZCSgA#/registration

Public comment sign-up for the 3 pm, July 21 Ordinance Committee meeting opens on Monday.   

Tell the Planning Board and the Council:

• I oppose the Brown downzoning petition to weaken Cambridge’s multifamily zoning because decreasing housing production will increase rents and block permanently affordable inclusionary homes.
• The Brown petition would have a huge negative impact on Cambridge's successful 100% Affordable Housing Overlay and may already have blocked AHO and MFH proposals from moving forward, which is the stated goal of proponents.
• The Brown petition will prevent lenders from financing multifamily housing, both if passed and even while pending, as any proposals that have yet to obtain building permits (a process that can take 12-18 months, another issue Cambridge needs to resolve!) risk having it applied to them.
• Parking minimums are a huge step backward, blocking housing and increasing traffic and emissions, and must be rejected. Parking for one 100% Affordable Housing Overlay multifamily building will cost $300,000 per parking spot! 
• The 6-story bonus for permanently affordable inclusionary homes must remain available across all neighborhoods, not just on the two or three largest streets in Cambridge. Arbitrary IZ limitations, setbacks, and wall-length rules add costs, reduce homes, and must be rejected. 
• The Planning Board and Ordinance Committee must report the Brown petition unfavorably, and the Council must vote against ordination (not just let the petition expire) to prevent the same few single-family homeowners from bringing an endless string of zoning petitions to block new housing. A vote against ordination means a similar zoning petition cannot be brought for two years. 

Please make sending an email and giving public comment your top housing priority of the summer so that we can stop playing zoning petition whack-a-mole, and please share this alert with neighbors, friends, and anyone who cares about housing and affordability in Cambridge!

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