The City Council approved two significant changes to ordinances at its summer meeting Monday with little discussion, one on development by religious organizations and the other about incursions by federal immigration agents seeking people to seize. Councillors had examined both amendments extensively at committee meetings.
The biggest change is a zoning ordinance amendment that will allow religious organizations to expand or build up to six stories almost anywhere in the city without restrictions on the size of floor area in a given lot. The amendment, modeled after the city’s multifamily housing ordinance aimed at increasing the housing stock by allowing apartment buildings in virtually any zoning district, enjoyed an unusually fast track to approval. The process took only about 20 weeks, compared with about 40 weeks for the multifamily housing ordinance approved Feb. 10.
The amendment was proposed by residents aligned with Lubavitch of Cambridge, which sued the city and the Board of Zoning Appeal after the board denied the Jewish religious group a permit to expand its center on Banks Street in the Riverside neighborhood near Harvard Square.
Lubavitch won a $540,000 settlement from the city; the agreement included permission for a much larger expansion that will result in a 90-foot-high, five-story building. The original proposal would not have raised building height beyond the current three stories. If the zoning amendment had been in effect, the group wouldn’t have needed zoning board approval.
City officials haven’t disclosed the full settlement agreement, though city solicitor Megan Bayer said approval of the zoning amendment isn’t part of it. Councillors changed the proposal to require religious organizations to keep half of any open space permeable and to require groups to meet with neighbors if they are proposing developments higher than three stories. The multifamily housing ordinance includes those requirements; Lubavitch’s original zoning amendment proposal didn’t.
City officials acknowledged that the amendment would follow the requirements of the federal law known as the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act, the law cited by Lubavitch in its federal lawsuit. The law bars land use rules such as zoning regulations that “substantially burden” religious practice unless a municipality has a “compelling interest” to adopt the rules and they are the least restrictive way of accomplishing that.
Welcoming community ordinance
The other amendment approved Aug. 4 is intended to strengthen the city’s welcoming community ordinance, which establishes Cambridge as a sanctuary city, protecting immigrants and forbidding police from cooperating with immigration enforcement actions. For example, the ordinance says police won’t agree to “detainer” requests from federal agents asking police to hold a person after he or she should be released so that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have time to travel to pick up the person outside a police station or courthouse.
Councillors removed language from the ordinance suggesting that police called to an Ice enforcement action could perform “crowd control” or escort the agents to safety. The amended ordinance also says police higher-ups will try to confirm that what looks like an enforcement operation isn’t being conducted by imposters.
The amendment originally included a requirement that officers ask Ice agents for their names and badge numbers, but supporters agreed to remove it. Police unions had objected, saying they worried that officers might be accused of interfering with Ice – a crime. Bayer, the city solicitor, had also told councillors Ice agents aren’t required to provide their names if asked.
A stronger
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