A fight is brewing over the future of East Cambridge, pitting the city’s development plan against a new plan submitted by a group that lobbies on behalf of Cambridge neighborhoods.
The new development plan, drafted by the Association of Cambridge Neighborhoods, is really more a rebuttal of the city’s plan. After pouring over the city’s plan with a fine-toothed comb, the neighborhood group is calling for a scaled-back version of the plan, calling the city’s proposal too commercial- and car-friendly.
" We’re concerned that the Planning Board version gives too much density, which would result in too much traffic … in an area that’s already failing to move traffic. There’s just no room to put any more cars, " said Stash Horowitz, vice president of the Association of Cambridge Neighborhoods.
Particularly in the North Point section of East Cambridge, the association is calling for a less ambitious development plan. There, the city’s Planning Board wants to build a new neighborhood and business district on what is now 50 acres of industrial and abandoned land, in the farthest corner of Cambridge.
Approximately 10,000 people would live or work in North Point, and almost 6,500 new parking spaces would be created in the area, according to the Association of Cambridge Neighborhoods.
In the city’s proposal, commercial development in North Point would be capped at 35 percent of total growth, putting the tallest office buildings on the northern and eastern shores of North Point. One larger and several smaller public parks would be built in new residential areas of North Point. The plan also allows the development company doing the work to increase density in North Point in exchange for its commitment to eventually move the MBTA T-station at Lechemere further into North Point, to provide public transportation to the new community.
But the plan is just too ambitious for a part of the city that already suffers from car congestion, said Horowitz. In particular, he and his group are concerned about plans to move the T-station.
" We believe it is too expensive and will never happen. It could be nothing more than a pie in the sky. There’s no guarantee the MBTA will ever do that, " said Horowitz. " And I’m not sure the T-station has to be moved, to begin with. Moving it will benefit the people from North Point, but won’t benefit the people of East Cambridge, who will have to walk farther to get there. "
So while the city’s plan caps commercial development in North Point at 35 percent, the association’s plan lowers the cap to 25 percent. The city’s plan would allow for the building of three buildings up to 220 feet in height in North Point; the neighborhoods group’s version cuts that height limit in half, limiting the buildings to 120 feet.
In addition to scaling back development in North Point, the association wants to alter the city’s plan in the following ways:
· Give 10 percent of development space to build four community facilities, such as a day care center, school, hospital, religious meeting place, a senior center or a youth center.
· Create an allowance for increased density if the overall percentage of housing stock is above 75 percent, as an incentive to create more homes in the area.
· Encourage the building of housing in Kendall Square by altering the incentives given to developers.
· Only allow open space and housing in the area surrounding the Volpe National Transportation Center.
· Fifteen percent of all new housing built would be affordable housing.
The developer picked for East Cambridge, and the Community Development Department in Cambridge, could not be reached for comment as this story went to press. But the argument usually made when a community calls for scaling back commercial development is that it will make the project unaffordable.
If that is in fact the argument being made in favor of the Planning Board’s plan, the A.C.N. isn’t buying it.
" The key question for the developers is, ‘What’s a reasonable profit?’ Developers always want more and more. Our job is to keep that level of profit activity — it used to be called greed — in check, " said Stephen H. Kaiser, a civil engineer who is also a member of the A.C.N.
" We don’t buy the argument that developers can not make money developing housing, " said Horowitz.
The ACN submitted its proposal to City Council on Monday. The plan will probably go to the Ordinance Committee for review next. Ultimately, the council has up to five months to weigh the two proposals before amending the city’s zoning laws and passing it into law.
" The city spent a great deal of time and money on the planning study that produced the Planning Board’s proposal, and I was a major advocate for the funding of that effort. So I’m interested to see how far apart the two plans are, " said Cambridge Mayor Anthony Galluccio. " My general concern is that North Point is, I believe, the last significant opportunity we have to create more housing units in the city. Any zoning that relates to North Point, I’m going to be viewing from that perspective. "
The ACN is calling for the type of compromise that recently occurred in the Alewife section of Cambridge. There, a compromise plan for development was struck between the city and neighborhood groups concerned about traffic congestion in the area.
