In a stunning reversal that was later revealed to be part of a legal settlement, Cambridge’s zoning board approved a Jewish congregation’s plan to quadruple the indoor space in its religious center on Banks Street after rejecting a much smaller expansion plan last year. The Board of Zoning Appeals voted unanimously Thursday after no discussion and explained the decision by referring to a federal law limiting local zoning restrictions on religious land uses. Some board members had previously contended before rejecting the previous expansion request that they could disregard the federal law.
The board voted after meeting briefly in a closed-door session – at least the third such executive session since last October to discuss a federal lawsuit by the religious group, Lubavitch of Cambridge. Lubavitch filed suit against the board and the city after the zoning board rejected its first expansion plan. The City Council also held a closed-door session on the case Monday.
On Friday it became clear that the zoning board decision was part of a settlement in the federal case, though other details were not provided.
The settlement agreement also may require Cambridge to approve a zoning amendment requested by Lubavitch that essentially gives religious organizations the same freedom from zoning restrictions that housing developers won with the city’s widely praised multifamily housing ordinance. The ordinance allows housing up to four stories, and higher in some cases, in any district in the city.except open space.
It isn’t known whether the agreement will include financial penalties.
“Pleased to announce” a settlement
Asked to comment on the Thursday zoning board decision, Lubavitch rabbi Hirschy Zarchi emailed a statement from Lubavitch and its attorney. “Although this has been a complicated chapter, we are looking forward to the future with excitement and anticipation. The Harvard Chabad Center for Jewish Life will be a great benefit to all in the Cambridge community. We are excited to build an inclusive Jewish space where everyone, including our neighbors, can enjoy the beauty and warmth of Jewish life and community,” Zarchi said.
Lubavitch is also known as Harvard Chabad because of its close ties to Harvard University, although it is not part of the university. Zarchi is a Jewish chaplain at Harvard. Though Lubavitch is an Orthodox Jewish denomination, it emphasizes outreach and says it welcomes any Jew, including people who are not Orthodox.
The city also issued a statement Friday saying it was “pleased to announce” a settlement. “We recognize that this resolution may not reflect the preferences of all residents. However, we have concluded that the laws involved mandate the authorization of a new building for the use by the Chabad.”
“We anticipate that the new facility will serve the worship needs of its congregation and positively contribute to the broader Cambridge community. The city remains committed to supporting a diverse and inclusive community that respects its legal obligations and the rights of its residents, neighborhoods and institutions,” the statement said.
Still concerns about size
Alan Joslin, a representative of the neighborhood group that opposed both of the Lubavitch expansion plans, said the organization, Kerry Corner Neighborhood Association, has not decided whether to take legal action to appeal the decision. At the meeting Thursday, members of the group reiterated their concerns about the size of the proposed center, saying their calculations showed it had a capacity to serve more than 1,600 people, a density that would overwhelm the residential neighborhood.
Lubavitch has contended that it would never need to accommodate that many people because its religious procedures call for scheduling services, meals and other activities separately, not simultaneously. The group sought to expand originally because it didn’t have room indoors to serve food to congregants after religious services and had to feed people in a tent outdoors, even in winter. The first expansion was designed to serve 250 people, then the current attendance at Lubavitch events, according to testimony.
Zoning board chair Jim Monteverde referred to the outdoor meals Thursday in his motion to approve the larger expansion, saying that the lack of indoor space for meals and need to cancel events was a “substantial burden” to Lubavitch.
“After review, the board finds that applying the city of Cambridge’s zoning regulations to Lubavitch of Cambridge would substantially burden Lubovitch of Cambridge,” Monteverde’s motion said. The “substantially burden” language echoed the federal law called the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, the law Lubavitch has relied upon to press its case.
The law, abbreviated as Rluipa, says local land use rules can’t “substantially burden” an organization or individual’s religious practice unless a community has a “compelling interest” to apply the rules and the regulations are the least restrictive way to accomplish that. Localities also can’t discriminate against religious groups or treat them differently than similar nonreligious organizations.
Building permit sought
The agreement paves the way for Lubavitch to start the project by obtaining a building permit, “which is proceeding,” a lawyer for the group said. Plans call for a 90-foot-high, five-story structure along Banks Street in the Riverside neighborhood near Harvard Square. One building on the Lubavitch site will be demolished and another will be moved closer to Banks, with the five-story edifice connecting the two remaining three-story existing buildings.
The fourth and fifth floors will contain three housing units for the rabbi and his family or Lubavitch staff, according to the plans filed with the zoning board. Lubavitch’s previous, smaller expansion plan didn’t increase the existing three-story building height. The facade of the new five-story structure will be set back after the third floor.
Lubavitch attorney Yehudah Buchweitz of the New York City law firm Weil, Gotshal & Manges said in an interview the city and Lubavitch have agreed to the “main terms” of a settlement but “there are a number of things that still have to happen over the coming months” for the agreement to be final. Though he didn’t specify what has to happen, he did say the city has agreed to hold the meetings necessary to approve Lubavitch’s proposed zoning ordinance amendment.
Focused elsewhere
At the first ordinance committee meeting that considered the amendment, councillors were told the deadline for approval is Aug. 18.
Committee members, who consist of all the city councillors, focused largely then on another development that could confine them in regulating not only religious uses but educational buildings. The new multifamily ordinance unintentionally eliminated an exemption Cambridge held from a state law that forbids zoning discrimination against religious, agricultural and educational land uses. Cambridge wanted the exemption in 1979 to prevent Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from expanding into residential areas and taking away housing.
The state law appears to be less restrictive than Rluipa; it allows zoning regulation of building height, open space and some other zoning elements.
At the ordinance committee meeting, city solicitor Megan Bayer promised councillors a legal opinion on both Rluipa and the state law known as the Dover amendment.
The city’s exemption had applied only in residential districts where the minimum lot size was 1,200 square feet per housing unit; the multifamily housing ordinance eliminated minimum lot sizes and therefore killed the city’s exemption.
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The new multifamily ordinance unintentionally eliminated Cambridge from the Dover Amendment, something that was continually brought up. “Cambridge wanted the exemption in 1979 to prevent Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from expanding into residential areas and taking away housing.”
Harvard owns many non-conforming houses for grads and faculty. But this institutional end-run, beginning before multifamily zoning, now eliminates any constraints by the city or incur the rath through bullying, intimidation and threats of law suits. Chabad owns MANY properties around Cambridge and can now build 6 stories anywhere regardless of location- and if they are challenged, they can fall back on the favorite “anti-semitism” whether true or not. Did our boy-wonder councilor learn anything about doing homework before damaging the city or was he complicit? He stated he was a big thinker letting others do the details. Congratulations about losing Dover exemption.
Cambridge’s recent zoning changes—including the elimination of single-family zoning and minimum lot sizes—aim to address the housing shortage by allowing more multifamily housing citywide. A side effect was the loss of the city’s unique exemption from the Dover Amendment, but the changes align with state law and long-established protections for religious and educational uses.
The claim that Chabad can now build “six stories anywhere” is misleading. Courts and local boards still consider neighborhood impacts, and the city retains authority over height, setbacks, and open space.
These reforms were meant to expand housing access—not the result of malice or incompetence—and the law still provides a framework to balance institutional rights with community concerns.
Did I walk to the new location? No, I ran.
I wanted to see the site before construction began.
But my efforts bombed.
I’m really missing why I’m supposed to be upset about this. It’s a five-story building, so what?
That a lawsuit was required for a perfectly respectable group to put up a perfectly legal building in Cambridge tells us that there is still a lot of work to do to reform zoning in Our Fair City. Thank you and congratulations Chabad.