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Boston Globe

Cambridge's new housing plan is deeply flawed

Advertisement All new projects can also be built without design oversight or means of legal appeal by neighbors. As a result, residents who invested in solar technology or are considering doing so are now at risk, as their roofs could be shadowed by taller neighboring buildings. The assumption driving the new zoning policy is that loosening zoning restrictions will flood the market with thousands of units of housing, addressing a severe housing shortage in one of the most expensive markets in the country. But a recent study for the Many younger residents may have been led to believe that Cambridge's upzoning would lead to cheaper rents. But in cities across the country, there are mixed results from zoning reform: In Austin, Advertisement In Cambridge, market dynamics, some unique to the city (two world-class universities and a burgeoning life-sciences and biomedical research sector) and some not (suburban boomers exchanging large homes for an urban lifestyle) suggest that upzoning alone is unlikely to create more affordability. In recent weeks, several Cambridge real estate transactions and proposed construction projects is actually likely to lead to more expensive, larger homes. The 'Yes in My Backyard' movement often argues that even an increase in luxury housing development would be good, because it would free up housing downmarket, as affluent households move into newer homes. But this 'trickle-down' housing economics makes no sense in Cambridge, where wealthy homeowners typically do not leave their homes for more luxurious ones, and their current homes do not then become magically affordable. In truth, Meanwhile the Metropolitan Area Planning Commission had it right in its recent Advertisement A surge in luxury housing construction will deepen Cambridge's gentrification, forcing out lower-income residents, including many from marginalized communities. Cambridge is increasingly becoming a city of extremes of rich and poor, where profit-driven policies override community needs. Cambridge residents see a strong need for more affordable housing, according to a YIMBYs celebrating the new measure claim moral high ground, dismissing critics as selfish NIMBYs while ignoring well-founded concerns about gentrification and the environment. Meanwhile, critics of historic-housing demolition, tree loss, heat-island impacts, and traffic congestion have been dismissed. Instead of the new upzoning measure, better alternatives would include leveraging city-owned lots for affordable housing and prioritizing the building of new apartment properties over condominiums. Cambridge is already very dense — one of the densest cities in the state and the Several amendments would improve Cambridge's new measure. First, the city should limit projects relying on the new upzoning criteria to multifamily homes of three or more units. Second, projects six stories tall should be shifted to corridors near commercial establishments. Third, Cambridge should reintroduce design oversight, in part to protect residential solar-power installations. Advertisement If the city truly wants to address its housing crisis, it must abandon the myth that deregulation will solve the problem. Affordability requires proactive intervention, oversight, and a commitment to keeping housing accessible — not a free pass for developers.