Planning Board Votes to Back Hotel Setback Shift
Planning Board · Meeting of September 22, 2026
Cambridge Planning Board sends mixed comments on a Harvard Square hotel's setbacks. Attorney Patrick Barrett asked the board to weigh in on a variance moving a planned hotel at 127 Mount Auburn Street to roughly 13.8 feet off Mount Auburn Street and about seven feet farther from neighbors on Story Street, relying on a state standard for variances that Massachusetts lawmakers lowered from "substantial hardship" to "practical difficulty" in July. The board voted 5-0 to send the Zoning Board of Appeals comments backing the Mount Auburn Street shift while flagging the narrower five-foot Story Street sidewalk, with member Ashley Tan recusing herself.
Board member Mary Lidecker called the hotel side "quite appropriate" to pull closer given the "active use," but said Story Street needed more design review first. Separately, the board granted a two-year permit extension, not the four years requested, for the stalled Crimson Galleria housing conversion at 57 JFK Street, voting 7-0 after appointing associate member Dan Anderson to reach a full board.
In the full story:
- Who Was There
- Organizations And Documents Referenced
- The complete report — 2,473 words
Source: the Planning Board meeting of September 22, 2026, reported from the official video recording and transcript.
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