Cambridge BZA Grants Variances to Concord Avenue Cafe and Harvard, Rejects Myrtle Avenue Zoning Bid

CAMBRIDGE — April 16, 2026 — Cambridge's Board of Zoning Appeal voted unanimously on all three cases before it April 16, granting variances to a neighborhood cafe and Harvard University while dismissing a homeowner's appeal for lack of jurisdiction. The board, chaired by Stephen Ng and joined by members Wendy Leiserson, Jim Monteverde, Virginia Kiesler, and Miranda Cecil, voted 5-0 to approve indoor seating and extended weekend hours through 10 p.m. for the cafe at 407 Concord Avenue, where operator Sohail Pati cited severe winter weather as a financial hardship. The board voted 5-0 separately to permit Harvard's Radcliffe Institute to install two painted acrylic identification panels, each roughly 13 by 20 inches, on Fay House at 10 Garden Street, the only building on the Radcliffe yard currently lacking exterior signage. On the first case, the board voted 0-5 against granting the appeal of Fan Wang, owner of 1 Myrtle Avenue, who sought a written zoning interpretation from Inspectional Services before filing a permit amendment; reading from a Cambridge City Solicitor opinion dated April 15, 2026, Leiserson stated flatly that "there's nowhere in our ordinance that gives this board the right to interpret the law or give an advisory opinion about the zoning law in a hypothetical situation," and the board adopted formal findings citing its lack of jurisdiction under MGL Chapter 40A Section 8.