Cambridge Ends Exclusionary Zoning

By allowing new apartments city-wide, Cambridge has one of the biggest rezoning in the country and creates the opportunity for more than 3,000 new homes.

Cambridge, Massachusetts – RealEstateRama – On Monday, February 10, the Cambridge City Council voted 8 – 1 in favor of a zoning petition allowing new multi-family housing, up to four stories, to be built city-wide, by right. This change undoes decades of exclusionary zoning, in which the zoning code was weaponized to enforce segregation by limiting where apartments could be built. City staff estimate the new zoning could result in ten times as many new homes created by 2040.

The new zoning works in tandem with Cambridge’s existing affordable housing programs:

• 100% affordable housing developers, which are granted a height and density bonus under the city’s Affordable Housing Overlay, can now build up to nine stories in neighborhoods.
• The proposal also supports the city’s inclusionary zoning program, which requires 20% of new units in any project of ten or more units to be set aside for low- and moderate-income households. As part of a compromise, the proposal allows up to six stories on larger lots if the project includes inclusionary units.

“This was an incredible, ambitious effort that demonstrates what’s possible on the local level. We have accomplished the biggest upzoning in the entire country. I’m proud with my colleagues to have been on the forefront of housing innovation, from eliminating parking minimums to the Affordable Housing Overlay,” said Cambridge City Councilor Burhan Azeem 

“We’ve had extensive debate on this over the past term, and while perspectives have differed, the need for action has been clear. Some have argued that zoning reform will not solve the housing crisis, and they’re right—no single policy will. But progress happens through sustained action, not inaction. Eliminating exclusionary zoning and removing barriers to development is a necessary step toward increasing supply and ensuring more people have access to housing,” said Cambridge City Councillor Sumbul Siddiqui.

Cambridge city staff estimate the new zoning could result in 3,590 net new units by 2040, of which 660 could be inclusionary. This is a significant improvement over the prior restrictive zoning, which staff estimate would result in only 350 units, and just 30 inclusionary.

“A Better Cambridge would like to thank all of its endorsed candidates for coming together to support this compromise proposal. We are also grateful to all the individual advocates who spoke up in favor of change. Because of all of you, Cambridge is taking a historic step forward in tackling its housing crisis,” said Dan Phillips, co-chair of A Better Cambridge. “It’s amazing how far we’ve come. Just four years ago, a less ambitious petition to allow up to 3-story apartments died in committee. Today, we legalized four stories by a vote  8 to 1. That’s a testament to years of volunteers’ hard work building the pro-housing movement.”

“I am extremely proud of AHMA Board Member Burhan Azeem, and the other seven Cambridge City Councilors for setting the new standard for housing abundance on a national scale. As a former Cambridge resident of almost 15 years and a co-founder of A Better Cambridge, I know firsthand the tremendous amount of work it took over years to mobilize public and political support to achieve this historic vote. It is with great pride that we have ended exclusionary zoning in Cambridge,” said Jesse Kanson-Benanav, executive director of Abundant Housing MA and co-founder of A Better Cambridge. 

The proposal allows most projects to proceed “by right”, meaning they do not require discretionary permits and are less likely to be delayed by abutter lawsuits. Builders would still be required to present their plans to the community for feedback and large projects over 75,000  square feet would still be subject to the special permit process. The new zoning also makes several reforms to dimensional standards, including easing setback and open space requirements, and removing floor-area-ratio and minimum lot size per dwelling unit limits entirely. The net result is a sharp increase in the amount of new housing allowed to be built.

Together, these changes pave the way for a more affordable future and show what’s possible when pro-housing advocates organize for change.

Background

• From 1980 to 2020 (pre-pandemic), Cambridge on net added ~45,000 jobs but built only ~12,600 homes. As a result, rents and home prices skyrocketed, making Cambridge less affordable and more exclusive with each passing year. Cambridge Housing Authority waitlists have more than 22,500 households on them, and Cambridge residents consistently select housing affordability as their #1 concern in citywide surveys.
• Cambridge’s current housing crisis is in part the product of a historical effort to weaponize the zoning code to segregate the city by class and race. On about a third of the residential land in Cambridge, building new apartment buildings was prohibited outright by zoning. And even where they were legal in theory, dimensional standards (e.g., height limits, maximum floor-area ratios) and setback requirements made it impossible in practice to build new triple-deckers, fourplexes, and townhouses like the ones that historically made Cambridge affordable to the middle class. In fact, a majority of Cambridge’s existing housing stock would have been illegal if rebuilt before this zoning petition was passed.
• These exclusionary zoning rules promoted suburban sprawl, deepened patterns of segregation, and undermined housing affordability.

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A Better Cambridge is an all-volunteer organization founded in 2013 dedicated to creating a more affordable, diverse, sustainable, and vibrant Cambridge. ABC believes that increasing housing, creating more affordable housing, and enhancing tenant protections are critical to ensuring more people can live and stay in Cambridge, regardless of background or income.

Abundant Housing Massachusetts is a non-profit organization founded in 2020 to advocate for the creation of abundant housing for all and to develop and support a network of grassroots, pro-housing groups and activists across Massachusetts. AHMA is committed to fostering a movement that includes diverse voices, geography, and people with different lived experiences to help shape an inclusive statewide pro-housing network