In ‘Landmark’ Vote, Cambridge Ends Single-Family Zoning

The Cambridge City Council voted 8-1 to approve a proposal eliminating single family zoning city-wide in a meeting Monday night, capping off more than a year of laborious dealmaking between activist residents, experts, and councilors in an landmark attempt to face the city’s housing crisis.

The final measure allows four-story residential buildings to be constructed by-right on all properties in Cambridge, and six-story buildings to be constructed on larger lots, under the condition that two of the stories contain all affordable units.

Around a third of residential land in Cambridge only allowed for one- or two-family homes before Monday — meaning thousands of properties are now eligible to increase their total height by several stories, or become apartments, without going before the planning board for approval.

“It was a remarkable team effort from everyone across that we were able to get almost consensus,” Councilor Burhan Azeem said in an interview after the vote.

Though councilors celebrated the passage of the measure as a successful compromise, most acknowledged they would have preferred a different version.

“Everybody got something they wanted, but nobody got everything they wanted,” Vice Mayor Marc C. McGovern said.

The original proposal would have legalized six-story residential buildings across the city, but faced pushback from some residents who said that it would disrupt the character of residential neighborhoods that were more used to one- and two-story homes.

In response, councilors added amendments that cut the number of stories legalized by-right to four, and added conditions — including a minimum lot size of 5,000 square feet — to constructing the next two stories. The changes helped it attain overwhelming support from the council on Monday, bringing it across the finish line.

“I personally wouldn’t have, and couldn’t have supported the original petition,” Patricia M. Nolan ’80 said. “I was happy to discuss and work with folks to say, let’s put in some amendments to make it something I could support,” she added.

Despite what many described as the historic significance of the measure, most councilors acknowledged their work to make the city more affordable was far from finished.

Before casting her vote to pass the ordinance, Simmons described the action as “adding another tool in the toolbox of affordability.”

“For too long, exclusionary zoning has put up barriers — barriers that have kept people out, that have restricted growth and have made it hard for families to put down roots,” Simmons said.

Since the 1950s, many American cities have seen an accumulation of increasingly complicated limits on the construction of home and apartment buildings, which has significantly dragged down housing production. In the Boston metro area, that has contributed to a dire housing shortage — driving rent prices to historic highs that policymakers are now racing to bring down.

Reducing such zoning regulations on housing development has been one, often contested, way of increasing the local housing supply and ultimately trying to end the housing crisis.

Cambridge’s decision to end single-family zoning makes the city a “role model” in that movement, said Simmons — as the city has frequently been on other progressive priorities, too, including eliminating parking minimums and establishing a city-wide network of bike lanes.

After the vote, councilors commended their action as trend-setting and urged other municipalities to follow suit.

“We have to push neighboring towns to follow our lead and do much more than they're currently doing,” Nolan said. “We cannot solve the housing crisis alone.”

— 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.