Final recommendations for a 15-year plan for Northern Massachusetts Avenue were presented Thursday by Cambridge Community Development after months of community and working group meetings. The planning study, which covers the stretch from Alewife Brook Parkway to Cambridge Common and includes Porter Square, outlines a slew of goals and strategies for a “more livable, people-centered Mass Ave,” according to an event handout.
The 2040 vision, presented at an open house at Lesley University’s Lunder Arts Center with consultants from Philadelphia’s Interface Studio on hand, is grouped into four broad goals: making the neighborhood more of a destination through local businesses and events, revitalizing the area through public art, events and greenery, improving transportation and encouraging housing development.
The study serves as a “guide or blueprint for what could happen over time,” said Drew Kane, the city planner who led the study. “It’s more just crafting a vision for what we want Mass. Ave. to be and look like in the next 15 to 20 years.”
The plan does not address the street design of Massachusetts Avenue, which is covered by another city initiative that shared some staff, Kane said. Construction work for the street design of Massachusetts Avenue is expected to begin next week, according to the project’s website.
Rezoning avenue and Porter Square
One aspect of the plan the city can act on in the near future is rezoning. The plan recommends changes to Massachusetts Avenue and Porter Square to allow for denser and taller development, with the goal of encouraging more housing near transit.
After a lengthy process to overhaul citywide residential zoning in February, city councillors turned their attention to rezoning “corridors and squares.” In a March joint committee meeting, the councillors agreed to prioritize rezoning Northern Massachusetts Avenue and Cambridge Street, which had its own planning study completed in 2022. Planning staff have recommended the two areas being combined into one zoning petition.
Current zoning allows for six-story residential buildings along Massachusetts Avenue. The plan proposes increasing that limit to eight, plus an additional three stories if the development provides public neighborhood amenities. In Porter Square, the plan proposes a gradient zoning scheme that would permit 12-story buildings by right in the centermost portion of the square, with decreased height limits for buildings farther from the center to match surrounding heights.
With community benefits and significant public open space, the centermost buildings could reach 18 stories.
The zoning petition would affect only the maximum allowed build height. Seeing actual change in the form of taller buildings would take time, Kane said, and the tallest height of 18 stories would require a public review process.
“Sensitivity around building height” came up frequently in meetings, Kane said, but the Thursday open house seemed calmer than a similar fall open house for the citywide multifamily zoning petition, where residents argued over proposed height limits.
A change with supporters
Some critics of the citywide zoning petition said they preferred denser housing to be built in corridors and squares rather than in all residential neighborhoods. Charles Sullivan, the director of the Cambridge Historical Commission, said he was skeptical of the petition and favors density along “major arteries and close to mass transit.”
On Massachusetts Avenue between Harvard and Porter squares, “there are tons of one-story storefronts, and then there are a couple of eight-story buildings from the 1890s that have been there for over a hundred years,” Sullivan said in a March interview. “Why can’t the rest of the street develop that way?”
Ruth Ryals, president of the Porter Square Neighbors Association, was part of the 14-person working group for the project and described housing supply as many members’ main priority. She said she’s still hesitant about 18 stories in Porter Square.
“It’s not a high, built-up kind of area, so it would be drastically different,” Ryals said.
David Sullivan, another working group member, supports the taller heights.
“Every unit of housing contributes to solving the huge shortage of housing,” said Sullivan, a former city councillor and current member on the steering committee for the housing group A Better Cambridge.
A Massachusetts Avenue zoning petition has yet to be drafted and proposed. Once presented to the City Council, likely in late fall according to a March presentation, the petition will need to go through multiple public meetings and hearings before the council can take a final vote.
Revitalizing the neighborhood
The implementation of many of the other goals is still unclear, Kane said, in part because some cannot be carried out by the city alone. Since much of Porter Square is privately owned, adding more public infrastructure will likely involve partnerships with property owners.
Smaller improvements such as “adding flexible seating and umbrellas in public spaces” to encourage street activity are possibilities in the near future, Kane said.
Existing initiatives from other city departments are beginning to address some of the plan’s recommendations, Kane added. For example, meeting the “dire need of additional shade or tree canopy coverage” on parts of Massachusetts Avenue will involve coordinating with the Urban Forestry Division on their tree plans instead of “starting from scratch.”
At the open house, residents voiced their desire for a greener and more vibrant Porter Square.
Brian Swartz, a resident who lives near Porter Square, used vacant storefronts as an example of the square’s decline. “I am a proud Cantabrigian, but this neighborhood’s in pathetically bad shape considering how much wealth is here,” he said.
A stronger
Please consider making a financial contribution to maintain, expand and improve Cambridge Day.
We are now a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and all donations are tax deductible.
Please consider a recurring contribution.
All I really want is a grocery store – I so miss the Evergood and there used to be an A&P where Walgreens is now.
This seems to be an obsession by the City Council. Has the population of America had a sudden surge in the past 10 or 20 years? No, so why this obsessive push for more housing? This will drive up the cost of rents, which will drive up the cost of home ownership, all the while adding more cars to the single lane Mass. Ave. Seems like a disaster in the making.
Cambridge and the Boston area in general has seen much faster job growth than housing growth, creating enormous demand for housing that isn’t being filled and driving up costs.
More people living in walkable areas rather than having to live deep in the suburbs because not enough housing is being made available in the core will reduce driving not increase it.