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blackdynomitesnewbag OP t1_jcygl9j wrote

Reply to comment by IntelligentCicada363 in Support the New Housing Zoning Petition by blackdynomitesnewbag

Maybe this will push them to do it sooner

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IntelligentCicada363 t1_jcykov6 wrote

It is very clear that at least a couple councillors (Nolan, Carlone, potentially others) plan to try to "upzone" the city without changing other aspects of the zoning code that make multifamily housing uneconomical to build.

The city could allow 6-plexes citywide tomorrow and every single one of those projects would still being going in front of the BZA for a dimensional variance.

The way I see it we are no where even close to fixing this problem. They can't even do the upzoning, let alone everything else.

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blackdynomitesnewbag OP t1_jcyl4ww wrote

There was a citizens petition filed in Jan or Feb that basically did that, the Doug Brown petition. It changed the table of uses to allow multi-families everywhere without changing the table of dimensional standards. He tried to submit it without signatures, so it failed by default.

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IntelligentCicada363 t1_jcymzf0 wrote

A lot of people are not interested in a good-faith discussion on this issue. The people who wrote this city's zoning code knew exactly what they were doing. It didn't escape anyone's notice that almost all of the existing multifamily housing stock in Cambridge would be made illegal.

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Their goal was to remake the city into a dull, soulless suburb. The layers of laws that prevent apartment construction are numerous and complex. They probably only failed to see it through because there are simply too many existing apartment builds for the culture of urbanism to be stamped out.

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blackdynomitesnewbag OP t1_jcyo468 wrote

It got close though. A lot of property owners took off the top floors of their buildings mid 20th century to save on taxes

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