Cambridge Housing Committee Opens Review of Taller Affordable Housing Overlay Amendments

CAMBRIDGE — February 8, 2023 — Cambridge Housing Committee opens review of amendments that would allow affordable buildings up to 25 stories in transit-rich squares. The Housing Committee convened February 8 to begin a formal review of proposed changes to the city's Affordable Housing Overlay, first adopted in October 2020, which has already put 596 units of 100 percent affordable housing in the pipeline. Co-sponsors Councilors Paul McGovern, Burhan Azeem, and Quinton Zondervan presented a plan to raise height limits from seven stories to 13 in denser zones and permit buildings up to 25 stories or 280 feet in Central Square, Harvard Square, Porter Square, and near Union Square, while removing floor-area-ratio caps and upper-floor setback requirements along about a dozen designated corridor streets. Cambridge Housing Authority Executive Director Michael Johnston and project manager Margaret Moran testified that the changes would have added four to nine units and pushed open space from 44 percent to as much as 50 percent at 116 Norfolk Street, and could have added up to 16 units at Jefferson Park, where more than 20,000 people — including over 7,000 with direct Cambridge ties — remain on the affordable housing waiting list.