Harvard and MIT Urban Planning Experts Weigh In on Proposed Zoning Overhaul

A panel of Harvard and MIT Urban planning experts said Cambridge city leadership must include resident input when deliberating on upzoning legislation — but disagreed on the timeline.

Wednesday’s panel — which included Harvard professor Maurice D. Cox and MIT professors Jeff Levine and P. Chris Zegras — comes after residents expressed concerns that zoning legislation has been rushed during a Monday City Council meeting. Many in attendance said they would like to hear from more experts on how the legislation would impact the city.

And on Wednesday, residents and city leadership got just that.

“I feel like we’ve all learned so much today, and I think you’ve really advanced the conversation of our thinking about the urban form of our city,” Councilor Catherine “Cathie” Zusy said in a meeting after the panel.

While the panelists agreed that residents should be involved in visualizing the new urban landscape, they disagreed on when the involvement should occur.

On one hand, Cox said it is “important to take a bold, decisive act and then watch how the response is in real time.”

“You have time to continue to educate yourselves and the community as to what the future looks like,” he added. “This is all theoretical and hypothetical until you have taken an action.”

Zegras did not completely agree, citing concerns that passing the legislation would send the city “down the path of no return.”

“I would say, well, the bold action now is to embark on the deep process of community engagement that leads to meaningful, actionable, form-based code,” he said.

Both Zegras and Cox, however, agreed on the importance of understanding the context of new construction when making design decisions.

“It’s context-sensitive,” Zegras said. “In fact, what you see in one part of the city should be different from another part of the city, in part because we’ve done this deep engagement, and understanding of place, and visualization of place.”

The professors also said providing visuals of what these new constructions may look like would help residents imagine how their neighborhoods may change.

“Actually as a resident, I would love to see this code translated into a way that's visualized — because I actually think, ‘Oh, I get it now. I can see that now,’” Zegras said.

The professors agreed that the construction of new housing would require economic investment from the city, not inclusionary zoning alone.

“If we really want to make this a city that multiple income category households can live in, we need to invest, ” said Zegras.

“Without public subsidy, I don’t think those high inclusionary zoning numbers work, except perhaps at very large scale,” he added.

The professors also discussed the implications of the proposed legislation on Cambridge’s urban planning — agreeing that the impacts would be seen gradually.

Levine said that even radical revisions to zoning law “won’t change anything actually in the short term because of the current market conditions.”

A public hearing before the Ordinance Committee later Wednesday drew more than 150 speakers — many of whom had attended the earlier panel discussion.

Many speakers interpreted the professors’ remarks as a sign that Cambridge needed to slow the process down to receive advice from experts and promote more thorough public discourse.

“To quote Professor Cox, take the time to envision the urban life we want. Pacing is incredibly important, so let this proposal expire,” Cambridge resident Jim Gray said during the meeting.

Resident Lawrence Atkins also said the earlier panel discussion demonstrated a lack of resident engagement with the proposal.

“These three professionals came here and stated that the greatest portion of this that's missing is community engagement,” Lawrence said in reference to the panel.

Many speakers, however, argued that the proposal had undergone discussion and come to a good compromise.

“I really urge this council to consider not delaying or not pausing upzoning and passing the compromise as planned,” resident Ian McGoldrick said. “Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.”

— Staff Writer Diego García Moreno can be reached at diego.garciamoreno@thecrimson.com.

— Staff Writer Summer E. Rose can be reached at summer.rose@thecrimson.com.