A new affordable housing proposal has ignited debate over the role of single-family homes in Cambridge.
Titled the âMissing Middle Housing Petition,â the proposal is sponsored by the affordable housing nonprofit A Better Cambridge and the Boston Sunrise Movement, and calls for zoning changes to allow for the construction of more multi-family âmiddle housing,â or four-plexes, triple-deckers, and townhouses. Over the last week, the petition has been met with mixed responses from City Councilors and residents.
At an April 8 Ordinance Committee meeting, the City Council voted to keep the petition in committee pending further review and feedback from the Community Development Department, the cityâs planning agency.
Following Boston Mayor Martin J. Walshâs nomination as President Joe Bidenâs Labor Secretary, Boston s 2021 mayoral race, once perceived as an uphill battle, has become a wide-open race between City Councilors Michelle Wu â07, Andrea J. Campbell, and newcomer Annissa Essaibi George.
Within the last month, Wu received several high-profile endorsements from progressive leaders, including U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and the Boston Sunrise Movement. Cambridge City Councilors Quinton Y. Zondervan and Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler previously endorsed Wuâs bid as well.
Despite this new wave of support for Wu, the race remains hotly contested with Campbell leading the field in fundraising for January.
Boston City Councilor Michelle Wu â07 rolled out twelve endorsements from local government officials in early December, including two from Cambridge city councilors, to bolster her 2021 mayoral campaign.
Cambridge City Councilors Quinton Y. Zondervan and Jivan Sobrinho-Wheeler praised Wuâs stances on climate and transportation issues, citing her commitment to environmental and economic justice.
Wuâs office released a 46-page plan in August outlining a series of policy steps for Boston to mitigate the effects of climate change and move toward environmental sustainability.
âThe window to reverse climate change is closing quickly, and the time is now to transition to a thriving green economy and sustainable communities with a city-level Green New Deal for Boston,â Wuâs campaign website reads. âMichelle has a plan to meet the scale and urgency of need in our communities.â
The city of Cambridge, Mass. is getting serious about solving the housing crisis. This fall, its council passed a policy so explicit in its commitment to ending out-of-control home prices that it caught the attention of an expert at the University of British Columbia.
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“It’s twice as ambitious as my most aggressive dream for Vancouver,” UBC landscape architecture professor Patrick Condon told The Tyee of what’s being adopted in Cambridge. “It effectively says you cannot add any density at all unless it’s going to be permanently affordable.”