Our Cambridge Street: A Community Plan

In 2022 and 2023, the City of Cambridge led Our Cambridge Street, a planning study for the communities along Cambridge Street between Inman Square and Lechmere Station.

Cambridge Street was identified in  Envision Cambridge  as an area where sensitive and sustainable growth could provide opportunities for affordable housing; support local retail and service providers; enhance opportunities for walking and bicycling; and improve the public realm, among other community interests and benefits.

The purpose of the Our Cambridge Street plan is to:

• Help coordinate public policy and spending based on the plans recommendations.
• Set shared goals between the City, community members, and local organizations.
• Set the groundwork for non-City partners to act together to achieve shared goals.

Cambridge Street was identified in Envision Cambridge plan as one of Cambridge's key corridors that has the potential to help the city achieve goals related to small businesses, mobility, housing, public space, and climate change.

Our Cambridge Street is an opportunity to help craft actions, based on the expressed goals, through a community planning process.

Before planning for the future of Cambridge Street, we needed to understand demographic conditions of the Cambridge Street community: "what we have, already". To analyze the demographics of the area, we set two boundaries. The first is an area where a person can travel .25 miles from Cambridge Street on-foot (~5 minute walk), and the second is an area where a person can travel .5 miles on-foot. These measurements are called "walksheds".

In 2022, there were approximately 21,800 people living in 10,520 households within a .25-mile walk from Cambridge Street. We found the Cambridge Street community's age and income is similar to the city on a whole.

Some other statistics about the Cambridge Street community:

• Seniors over 65 years old: 13% (11% citywide)
• Youth under 19 years old: 12%
• Households experiencing poverty: 15% (11% citywide)
• Median household size: 2

The Cambridge Street community has changed over time but has always been diverse. The chart below shows the total population has gradually increased from just below 25,000 people in 1980 to over 30,000 in 2020.

This population increase is partially due to an increase in Asian population, which appears to have doubled since 1980.

Cambridge Street has always been a place for immigrants to establish homes and open businesses. Since 2000, around 30% of the total population has been born in another country ("foreign-born"). Over the last 20 years, the most common country of origin of new immigrants has shifted from Portugal in 2000, to India in 2010, and recently to China in 2019.

Cambridge Street is surrounded by major development projects that will add millions of square feet of new housing, businesses, and retail. Although most of these projects are not directly on Cambridge Street, they will still influence how Cambridge Street changes in the coming years. ​

These expected development projects will bring new jobs, which will likely bring more commuters and new residents. Some of these new workers will live in new market-rate and affordable housing, while some will look to live in housing that already exists.

Cambridge Street is a bustling neighborhood main street. The street, sidewalks, plazas, parks, and buildings along Cambridge Street need to support a wide variety of activities in limited space.

To serve all the people that use the street we need to find space for business deliveries, space for more street trees, space for busses, and space for people to travel comfortably along the sidewalks, and space for much more!

A successful Cambridge Street will:

• support small businesses
• create new affordable housing
• manage deliveries and loading
• encourage walking
• improve ADA accessibility
• integrate separated bike lanes
• plant more trees and increase shade
• manage stormwater

Through the community engagement process the Cambridge Street community crafted a shared vision for Our Cambridge Street. This vision included four themes: Inviting, Local, Affordable, and Accessible and Resilient.

Each of the themes has its own stated goal. Driven by the intent of that goal, the plan proposes fifteen strategies across the four themes (Inviting, Local, Affordable, Accessible & Resilient). Strategies range from building inclusive public spaces to creating affordable commercial spaces for small businesses. Each strategy is accompanied by a set of recommended actions for the City and its partners to implement, which may include new or expanded policies, programs or built projects.

Creating a new zoning district for Cambridge Street and providing design standards and guidelines would advance several goals and priorities from Our Cambridge Street. 

Zoning changes for Cambridge St. will regulate:​

• Type of use (e.g. residential, commercial)​
• Size and scale of buildings ​
• Intensity of use (e.g. how many housing units)​
• Site or building characteristics (e.g. parking, open space) 

The Community Development Department (CDD) will prioritize implementing new zoning for Cambridge Street to help keep Cambridge Street local, affordable, accessible, and resilient. ​

I. CREATE A NEW ZONING DISTRICT FOR CAMBRIDGE STREET

Strategy 7:  Encourage high density mixed use residential development along Cambridge Street by considering zoning changes​.

• Action 7A: Maintain density limits on commercial only buildings to mitigate potential introduction of large lab and commercial office buildings.​
• Action 7B: Encourage more housing in new development.​
• Action 7C: Provide guidance to step down to neighboring zones.​
• Action 7D: Allow and concentrate taller buildings at areas with opportunity for additional density.​

II. PROVIDE DESIGN STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES

Strategy 3: Help businesses create active ground floor frontages.​

• Action 3C: Develop design standards and guidelines for ground floor treatments and new development, and align with the Citywide Urban Design Guidelines.​

Strategy 9: Look for opportunities to enhance the street for people walking. 

• Action 9E: Encourage ground floor opportunities for open space in new development to create wider sidewalks, where appropriate. 

III. INCENTIVIZE DESIRED GROUND FLOOR USES

IV. SUMMARY OF PROPOSED ZONING CHANGES

Following the publishing of the final plan in early 2023, CDD will focus on advancing the priority actions supported by the community including future zoning for Cambridge Street.

The following implementation matrices lay out the starting timeframes and partners for each of the recommendations.

 View the Final Plan  

 View the Community Engagement Appendix 

 View the Existing Conditions Appendix 

Visit the project webpage at  www.cambridgema.gov/cambridgestreet