Housing, Transit Top of Mind as City Looks to Alewife’s Future

Two years ago, after Denver-based real estate firm Healthpeak purchased hundreds of millions of dollars worth of land in Alewife for laboratory development, city officials were concerned.

Interest from biotechnology firms seemed to be rising, sparking fears that the area was destined to become the next Kendall Square.

So the city hit pause, imposing a moratorium on laboratory and office development in the area in May 2022.

One year later, the city approved a rezoning of the Quadrangle — the area at the center of Alewife — with a heightened focus on affordable housing and a vision of a “balanced, vibrant, and mixed-use district.”

But as new developments lead to a growth in Alewife’s population, residents and advocates are left wondering how to accommodate more riders on an already-strained transportation system.

‘New Housing Anywhere’

In June 2022, the city convened an Alewife Zoning Working Group — comprised of residents, business owners, and developers — to compile recommendations and give feedback as city officials began devising a rezoning of the area.

After 11 months of discussions with the working group, the city proposed a rezoning of the Quadrangle which emphasized mixed-use development, including a requirement that non-residential developments contribute to the city’s fund for affordable housing.

“In the new Alewife Quadrangle zoning, large-scale commercial development needs to include housing,” Jeff Roberts, Cambridge’s zoning director, wrote in an email. “In some cases, a smaller commercial development could be built without housing but would need to make a Housing Fund contribution instead.”

The City Council finalized the rezoning in September 2023.

“Recognizing that it may be challenging for some smaller new developments to include new housing, the Housing Fund was created to generate funding for affordable housing from new non-residential developments,” wrote Chris Cotter, the housing director for the Community Development Department.

Although no developers have had to contribute to the fund at present, the area is awaiting the completion of Rindge Commons, a nonprofit-led affordable development which will create 101 units in the Quadrangle.

“Cambridge has a significant need for housing, so new housing anywhere in the city is beneficial,” Cotter wrote.

Justin N. Saif ’99, the co-chair of housing advocacy group A Better Cambridge, said that he hopes the city will allow for much more housing in the area.

“We’re encouraging the maximum attainable amount of housing to be required,” Saif said. “We are realists in that we want housing to happen, not just to be on paper.”

The Transit Problem

But as the city has envisioned residential development in Alewife substantially ramping up, residents have raised questions about both an increase in car traffic and the unreliability of public transportation.

Suhas Kodali, a member of the Alewife Zoning Working Group, said there was significant community concern about traffic and transit, adding that many residents wanted to see a long-rumored commuter rail stop finally come to fruition before the neighborhood welcomed an influx of new residents.

“Early on a big thought that they were pushing was we really shouldn’t be up-zoning this until we actually get the commuter rail stop there so that traffic could be alleviated a bit,” Kodali said.

However, Susanne Rasmussen, the director of the city’s Environmental and Transportation Planning Division, said the city was not aware of any plans from the MBTA to build a commuter rail station in Alewife.

Because the state oversees public transportation, the city has limited influence on the condition and reliability of transit, according to Saif.

Residents are also concerned about the poor condition of the Red Line, the only MBTA line to extend to Alewife.

“We communicate regularly with The Alewife Transportation Management Association. They have expressed that Red Line travel time and reliability is a significant issue for residents around Alewife,” wrote Rasmussen. “They have also communicated appreciation for the MBTA's recent transparency on the need for significant repairs to resolve existing issues.”

She added that future Red Line closures will be “very challenging for the community.”

“However, the repairs will significantly improve Red Line speed and reliability over the next several months,” Rasmussen added. “Trips will become much faster.”

Housing advocates said the success of the rezoning is contingent on reliable public transportation.

“We’re all very dependent on the MBTA. And we need the MBTA to be the best it possibly can be,” Saif said. “Our viability as a region is really dependent on having well-functioning transit, and that needs to be a top priority for the state.”

—Staff writer Laurel M. Shugart can be reached at laurel.shugart@thecrimson.com. Follow them on X @laurelmshugart or on Threads @laurel.shugart.