Cambridge Planning Board Unanimously Rejects Petition to Limit Multi-Family Building Heights

CAMBRIDGE — July 14, 2026 — Cambridge Planning Board votes 5-0 against recommending a citizen zoning petition that would have reduced building heights and added parking requirements in Residence C1 districts. The petition, filed by longtime Cambridge zoning advocate Douglas P. Brown and at least nine co-signers under state law, would have cut affordable housing overlay heights from nine stories to six, required one parking space per two units for buildings of four or more units, and lowered the design-review threshold from 75,000 to 20,000 square feet. Sarah Barkin, executive director of the community development corporation HRI Cambridge, testified the setback and step-back requirements alone would reduce HRI's approved 95-unit family and senior housing project at 2830 Wendell Street to roughly 33 units, calling the result "simply impossible to finance." Board member Ted Cohen called the petition "a rollback" and said the city's housing crisis demands continued density; Chair Thompson Avich said the quantitative impact data from affordable housing developers was "very dramatic" and decisive. The petition moves next to the Ordinance Committee, which has a hearing scheduled for July 21.