Cambridge unveiled its new development dashboard at Tuesday’s City Council meeting.
The dashboard was builtin response to a policy order sponsored by Councillor Cathie Zusy to make more information available about housing development, and is now available to the public.
Development plans have become a kind of sport for some residents since the Multifamily Housing Ordinance passed in February 2025. Residents eager to quantify the impact of the upzoning have submitted public records requests seeking permit information about new development in their neighborhoods, including provocative projects like ones on Wyman Road (soon to have a Huron Avenue address) and Ellery Street. Others have contributed to a crowdsourced site organized by Zusy.
City officials said Tuesday they hope by coalescing all the information in a single site, they can improve transparency without overburdening city employees..
“An important thing in setting up this dashboard was that this is sustainable in the long term and this is something that can be relatively automated,” said Deputy Chief of Planning Jennifer Caira during Tuesday’s meeting.
Cambridge Housing Development Dashboard
Some early insights
The city will add more data, like links to the actual permits developers file with the city. It may adjust some of the dashboard’s features based on feedback. But already the dashboard is revelatory.
Slow start: Only 20 projects have been completed since January 2025. Most of them were rehabilitations of existing buildings that either added or subtracted one unit. In the pipeline, though, are 136 permitted projects. Another 89 have submitted permit applications.
Inclusionary improving: Only four projects that have received permits have inclusionary units (one of them being a massive 439-unit residential building under construction in Kendall Square). But 15 more recent applications include such units, making a total of 19.
MFHO impact: The MFHO greatly increased potential for development in the city’s largest residential district, C-1. The dashboard filters only for C- districts. It shows most projects are underway in the C-1 district.
Some metrics:
- Since January 2025, 19 projects have been completed in C-1. Some of these may have received permits before MFHO changes went into effect.
- There are 113 projects in the district that have received permits. Some permits were for demolition, and it is unknown what will be built on those lots. Of the 100 that have received their new build or rehab permits, two have inclusionary units, two were permitted with the affordable housing overlay, and one of them is a 100% affordable project with federal funding.
- Of the 68 projects in the district that have submitted permit applications, only a few have submitted demolition permits thus far. Five of the proposals are 100% affordable housing projects, and another six include inclusionary units.
A tale of two trackers
Zusy said her crowdsourced site has more meaningful design and data tracking than the city’s dashboard.
According to Zusy, the crowdsourced tracker only logs projects in which the total number of units changes. It also includes a 21-property “watchlist” of homes that have recently been sold to developers but may not have publicly available plans.
Zusy’s tracker also estimates the number of new units these projects will add to the city’s housing stock. It offers crowdsourced assessments of project impact on things like parking and trees. And, it includes information on upcoming community meetings.
Zusy urged the city on Tuesday to add more of these details in its dashboard. That may not be quick to happen.
“We’re just pulling from records and information that exists elsewhere in the system, so we’re not going through every file and pulling out some of the specifics,” Caira said. If residents have more questions about specific multifamily projects, the city has set up an email (multifamilyhousing@cambridgema.gov) to coordinate responses across departments.
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.