April 4, 2025
Dear Fellow Cantabrigians,
Here’s what’s happening in our City:
Study of the Half Crown Marsh Neighborhood Conservation Districts (NCDs)
The Council has decided to delay the renewal of the Half Crown Marsh Neighborhood Conservation District until next year. They first want to evaluate its impact on multi-family housing development.
I spoke for the ten-year renewal of the NCD. I believe this tool, developed by Cambridge and now adopted by cities and towns in thirty-five states, preserves community character. I’m confident our Historical Commission will be able to demonstrate that NCDs don’t arrest development but instead improve development proposals.
City Finances & the FY26 Budget
Good news: Cambridge is keeping our AAA bond rating—one of 22 cities in the USA. We are a well managed City. And as we all know, Harvard and MIT are critical to our fiscal health.
The last of our $88m of American Rescue Plan dollars are designated for afterschool, homeless support, language justice, housing assistance, student transport and immigrant services.
Cambridge Police
After much discussion, the Council voted to support CPD’s firearm replacement and accessible transport requests.The CPD overall FY26 budget holds steady at $80m.
I continue to believe that over the next 3-5 years, with lower commercial revenue and less money from federal and state grants, we must reduce overall spending while preserving our cash reserves.
Garden Street & Other Transportation Updates
We received hundreds of passionate letters and heard dozens speak out about whether Garden Street should remain one-way or revert back to two-way. There isn’t an obvious best solution. To be decided on Monday…
Striving to better accommodate all forms of transportation was the focus of my 3.17 Transportation Committee meeting. See the video here [https://cambridgema.granicus.com/player/clip/977 Our challenges were analyzed by MIT professors. Transportation entrepreneur Robin Chase shared a history of local transportation patterns and ideas for incentivizing sustainable transportation goals.
Also advanced on Monday: a Home Rule Petition allowing for automated parking enforcement. This will make it easier to ticket those parking in bike lanes.
Last year the City issued over 1000 tickets to drivers parked in bike lanes. Again, Cambridge must be safe and navigable for all pedestrians, cyclists and drivers.
Central Square & Zoning
This past summer, the City requested Requests for Information from private developers to build on City-owned Central Square lots #84 (Starlight) and #96 (small lot beside H-Mart). Monday night, CDD shared a vague summary. Two nonprofit developers didn’t think they could raise the money to build on the sites. Three for-profit developers wanted a 99-year lease and expressed interest in building mixed income housing but would not commit to creating cultural space or parking. (Why would we give away some of our biggest and most valued real estate and not get more public benefits back in return?) I urged that we develop a fuller vision for the Square.
The Council voted to make Cambridge Street, North Mass. Ave and Central Square our zoning priorities. I reminded the Council that we need to establish development goals—e.g., how many units do we aspire to create by 2040 or 2050?—before haphazardly committing to towers on all our corridors.
Charter Review
We have nearly completed modest updates to our 1940 Plan E City Charter. There’s now “modern” language and a new section about elections. The one substantial change is the Mayor will no longer automatically serve as School Committee Chair. Still to be determined is how the School Committee Chair and Mayor will be selected. I believe that the Council should continue to select the Mayor from within our ranks.
Citizens rights to introduce initiatives via citizen petitions and to challenge Council ordinances with referendums will be preserved in the new charter.
Urban Design Guidelines
Community Development has created a public exhibition of guidelines for local development at the Main Branch of the Library through April 9. These guidelines present best practices for local development and grow directly from Envision Cambridge. Their goal: to influence all larger developments, including those without required review. Later this spring CDD will share guidelines for smaller multifamily housing developments. Have recommendations for changes or additions? See the guidelines and submit comments here. [Add link: https://www.cambridgema.gov/Departments/communitydevelopment/cambridgeurbandesignguidelines
DPW Releases Draft 2.0 Zero Waste Management Plan
Check it out here. [add link]https://www.cambridgema.gov/Departments/PublicWorks/Initiatives/ZeroWasteMasterPlan#:~:text=The%20draft%20ZWMP%202.0%20has,diverting%20waste%20from%20the%20trash.
Out & About
Over the last weeks, I’ve had the honor of serving as a judge for the Hult Innovation Prize, to attend an event celebrating the Black Church at St. Augustine’s, a Metropolitan Area Planning Council legislative breakfast, and the East End House’s Spring Lunch for Seniors. I also cheered on runners at the Spring Classic 5k.
If you like my letter, please share it with friends or have them email me if they’d like to be added to the list. Thank you for guiding me with your thoughtful letters, testimony and advocacy.
Cathie Zusy
Cambridge City Councillor