Zoning out: Cambridge, MA delivers huge win for urbanists and residents worried about housing

The City of Cambridge, Mass., home to multiple colleges, including two of the nation’s most prominent universities, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, just voted to end what it calls exclusionary zoning.

To the delight of urbanists around the country, Cambridge City Council voted 8-1 for proposed zoning reform, which will clear the way for more dense zoning that could support more housing units and bring housing costs down.

The massive change comes after years of advocacy for multifamily-friendly zoning reforms to address the city’s housing crisis — both in availability and affordability.

Context

If you’re unfamiliar with zoning, it can be described as city-level governance that dictates where housing units can be built in a given jurisdiction, as well as what kind of housing, how tall, what rate, and more.

Zoning in the U.S. has long favored single-family zoning, a type of zoning that only allows for single-family detached homes — like the ones common in the suburbs — to be built.

Some researchers have noted that this type of zoning which favors single-family homes that tend to be more expensive, along with other provisions like lot sizes and parking mandates, have historically been used in tandem with practices like redlining to effectively segregate parts of American cities, whether by race or economic class, or both.

Because of this, single-family zoning and zoning have been dubbed “exclusionary zoning” by scholars because of the way it supports less dense neighborhoods and generally allows homeowners’ home values to increase while curbing the growth of an area.

Today, zoning still largely shapes how and where a city is able to build or even retrofit old buildings, which makes what Cambridge passed all the more impactful.

New rules

Before last Monday’s changes, single-family zoning and other exclusionary zoning codes were in place throughout many parts of the historic city that has seen generations of students call home. Now, with the approved changes to the zoning code in Cambridge, up to four stories can be built anywhere in the city, and six stories on lots greater than 5,000 square feet.

Council member Burhan Azeem of the City of Cambridge led the effort on this bill as its lead sponsor.

“We went from a place where 85 percent of our city was nonconforming beforehand — probably had one of the most restrictive zoning [codes] in the U.S. — to now allowing up to six stories anywhere in the city,” Azeem said, adding that he is very excited for one of the most ambitious rezonings for a city that he’s seen.

Nonconforming, in this context, refers to buildings that don’t align with present-day zoning ordinances due to being built under other historical codes.

Azeem, founder of local nonprofit Abundant Housing Massachusetts, said that before being elected to city council two terms ago, this was the main focus he wanted to get over the finish line in his latest term.

“I think there’s a lot of energy around it… we were in such a bad place with 85 percent of the city being nonconforming that it really affected everyone, and there was so much benefit to have,” said Azeem, adding that even homeowners that seemingly benefit from exclusionary zoning could not upgrade their homes in certain ways due to the zoning codes. “You couldn’t build anything in much of the city besides a large mansion, and I think there was a lot of distaste for the status quo.”

Today, Cambridge hosts a population of around 118,000; over 100 years ago, in 1920, according to the U.S. Census, the population hovered around 109,000, meaning in 100 years, the population has emerged nearly at the same level, notwithstanding periods of growth and decline. That’s partially due to housing — or lack thereof, Azeem said.

“Cambridge is 118,000 people, which is a good chunk for our size, but also in 1950 we were 120,000 people — so we haven’t even reached our peak population, and that’s really because we’ve made it illegal to build housing for the last 75 years in our city,” Azeem said. “I think the supply and demand piece does make a difference.”

Of course, a change this big didn’t come without pushback. Concerns about the changing dynamic and culture of the city with the introduction of new zoning policies were not uncommon.

“The city has more of a small-town feeling than Boston; people were really worried about what they call ‘Manhattanization,'” Azeem said. “Our goal with the six stories was to say there’s another path to development, which is how European cities end up being very dense and having a lot of housing, but also end up not having high rises and instead have a broad base floor; instead of us doing our squares and corridors for 20, 40, 60 stories, let’s just do six stories city-wide — but it has to be city-wide.”

The council made sure they listened to these concerns and even sought expertise from people like Jason Furman, former chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, who agreed that a greater housing supply would ultimately reduce housing costs. 

It also looked over and debated multiple versions of zoning reform proposals that saw amendments from multiple members of the council evolve into the compromised, final draft that got approved.

The zoning changes are projected to add 1,195 new housing units by 2030, including 220 affordable units; that number rises to 3,590 new homes by 2040, including 660 affordable units, according to the Cambridge Development Department. For any building seeking to build to the six-story limit, one in five units must be deemed affordable for people making between 50 and 80 percent of the area median income.

The reform also has the potential to be an opportunity for current homeowners, too — not just new constructions.

“Let’s say you have a house that’s 2000 square feet, and you just don’t need that much space,” Azeem said. “You can just break it into two apartments that are 1000 square feet each, which was not allowed before.”

In all, the reforms are an intentional response to the challenges of a housing shortage and housing affordability crisis in one of New England’s hottest markets. How exactly the reforms will play out will, of course, depend on a multitude of factors; one certainty, however, is that such major reforms are sure to have lasting effects one way or another.