Cambridge Planning Board Reelects Chair, Advances New Street Affordable Housing Project

CAMBRIDGE -- January 4, 2022, Cambridge Planning Board unanimously reelected Catherine Preston Connolly as chair and named Mary Flynn vice chair at its January 4 meeting. The board also voted 7-0, with Louis Bacci voting present, to advance the second advisory design review for a 107-unit affordable housing project at 52 New Street proposed by Just a Start under the city's Affordable Housing Overlay; most members praised the revised design, with Bacci dissenting that "this building has no identity on the street." In separate Board of Zoning Appeals reviews, the board voted 7-0-1 to send a negative recommendation for a rooftop wireless facility proposed by Starry Inc. at 213 Harvard Street, citing antenna visibility and lack of a long-term equipment plan, while unanimously supporting replacement of eight fire-lost units at 22 Water Street with a recommendation for CDD design review. The meeting's longest discussion centered on a city council policy order directing the board to develop strategies for eliminating single-family and two-family exclusive zoning districts across Cambridge, a process CDD staff said would likely require multiple meetings and could take much of 2022 to produce a formal recommendation.