Cambridge assistant city manager Iram Farooq will soon be working with the city from the other side of the desk – as managing director of campus planning at Harvard University, City Manager Yi-An Huang said Wednesday.
Farooq, head of community development, has been with the city for 25 years.
“I’m filled with a lot of emotions: gratitude for all that Iram has contributed, sadness that she will no longer be a colleague, excitement for her new adventure and appreciation that she will remain very much a part of the Cambridge community,” Huang said in a letter.
Melissa Peters, chief of planning strategy for the city, will serve as acting assistant city manager of community development during a search to start in the new year. “Melissa has been with the city for the last 10 years and has led some of our largest planning initiatives, including Envision Cambridge and the rezoning of the Alewife Quadrangle,” Huang said. “I’m grateful for her leadership during this transition period.”
Farooq has a bachelor of architecture degree from the School of Planning and Architecture in New Delhi and a master’s degree in landscape architecture with a special emphasis on land planning from Harvard. She started in Cambridge in 1999 as CDD’s senior project manager for land use and zoning, then served as chief of policy and planning.
After the sudden death of department head Brian Murphy in February 2015, then-city manager Richard Rossi tapped Farooq to run a department that now has 100 employees and a $22.5 million budget, according to city documents at the start of the current fiscal year. She was a finalist for city manager in 2022.
In a statement marking the moment, Huang said:
Iram has been a key leader and voice in so much of the incredible growth, development and transformation in Cambridge over the last decades. She shaped the creation of Kendall Square, Cambridge Crossing and Alewife, where we now see vibrant mixed-use communities and thousands of new homes. She has been a leader of our climate work on green buildings and green zoning, the development of the Net Zero Action Plan, the passage of Beudo 1.0 in 2015 and 2.0 in 2023 and creation of our Resilient Cambridge roadmap. She guided the creation of the Affordable Housing Overlay 1.0 and 2.0 and she is now coordinating the policy development of multifamily housing. And if that’s not enough, she has also overseen our investments in small businesses, our recent work on supplier diversity, planning for our transportation future, reimagining our open spaces and much more.
Through all of this work, Iram has partnered with stakeholders across the city, creating space for honest and difficult conversations, worked closely with the City Council on the details of policy and the challenges of hard negotiations, and made investments in community development to make it a stronger, efficient and inclusive department. Iram is leaving an amazing legacy across our community and within the city.
Farooq’s last day in the office is expected to be Jan. 24. A voice mail was left with her Wednesday seeking comment, but there was no immediate response.
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