FYI. Like Jeff, I have been trying to forward a range of position papers on this, so you can make up your own minds, and contact the Planning Board or City Council. Ruth From: <richdale-ave-community@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Jeffrey Lipshaw <jlipshaw@gmail.com> Date: Thursday, June 27, 2019 at 4:02 PM To: <richdale-ave-community@googlegroups.com> Subject: [Richdale Ave] Fwd: Opponents of the Overlay While I think the debate should occur with the City Planning Board and not on this list, I am passing it along. Note: I am pretty sure I personally don’t like the proposed zoning plan, but I am certainly willing to pass along any similar materials from those who support it. Best, Jeff Jeffrey M. Lipshaw Begin forwarded message: From: Kate Canfield <kpc@canfielddesign.com> Subject: Fwd: Opponents of the Overlay Date: June 27, 2019 at 12:31:51 PM EDT To: Kate Canfield <kpc@canfielddesign.com> Dear Cambridge friends, I wonder if you are aware of this Overlay Petition coming up for a vote in the next few months (PDF attached). It appears to be a completely self-serving proposal by developers. I’ll be interested to hear what you think. If you agree, help spread the word and write letters! Thanks, Kate Forwarding Professor Blier’s plan of action: From: "Blier, Suzanne" <blier@fas.harvard.edu> Date: June 23, 2019 at 7:36:43 PM EDT Subject: Opponents of the Overlay - URGENT Mtg on Citywide zoning this Tues. PLZ attend and write letters Dear Friends, You have indicated concern about the Overlay before City Council. As this moves forward we are asking for your help. The city is looking for this massive up-zoning plan to come to a vote by City Council between August and November. Below is a brief overview of where we are. We need your urgent help now! This plan, which was written for the Cambridge Development Department by developers and is intended to up-zone the entire city will have long term negative impacts and will not do what it is said to do (seriously address the affordable housing crisis). No other progressive city in the country has put forward a plan as radical and far reaching as this one. HSNA has written a strong letter in opposition to it (see below) There are two critical upcoming meetings. And in both cases, we need as many people as possible to attend (and speak – even if only 2 sentences). Also we need you to write (even if you have written before). At this juncture everything is being counted. *June 25 6:30 PM. Planning Board. City Hall Annex 344 Broadway 2nd floor URGENT ACTION NEEDED *WRITE to City Planning Board: lpaden@cambridgema.gov By Monday Noon AND also send to: council@cambridgema.gov *PLEASE ATTEND the JUNE 25 Planning Board meeting at 344 Broadway 2nd Floor. Please sign up to speak ACTION NEEDED on or by July 2 *July 2, 5:30 PM. City Hall – 795 Mass Ave. Sullivan Room. *WRITE again to City Councillors at council@cambridgema.gov *ATTEND this 5:30 PM meeting at City Hall at 795 Mass Ave. The Cambridge Development Department has been having new meetings around the city. The first two in June had nearly 4 to 1 opposition to the up-zoning plan. We need this to continue. Please attend one or more of these: July 18 6:00-8:00 PM Multicultural Arts Center, 41 Second St. -Overlay discussion: try to attend. Come with your questions. July 22. 6:00-8:00 PM Cambridge Community Center, 5 Callender St. -Overlay discussion: try to attend. Come with your questions. July 24 6:00-8:00 PM Trolly Square Community Room, 2401 Mass Ave. -Overlay discussion: try to attend. Come with your questions. A group of us around the city have also begun a new advocacy group titled: CAMBRIDGE CITIZENS COALITION. We are addressing the Overlay & other Cambridge Issues. Lots of information on the Up-zoning is being posted there Website: CCCoalition.Org Facebook: CCCoalition1 We are currently Seeking 501c4 status Visit the CCCoalition website, volunteer, donate, and join this effort if it interests you. There are lots of documents we are posting here. It would be wonderful to have your help! We now have a legal opinion on this Upzoning but it will be much easier for us if this NEVER comes up for a vote; afterwards it will be far more difficult. We need four councillors to oppose it. Note - It will be hard to overturn this once it passes. Please contact Councillors as a group or individually and help out however you can. We also are putting together a door handle “flier” with key points of opposition that we will order and distribute in the weeks ahead. The HSNA Letter on the city-wide Up-zoning proposal is below: Thanks for your support and help! Please write to the Planning Board and Council – and if at all possible plan on attending and speaking at both meetings. Best, Suzanne ______________________ Dear Honorable City Councillors, City Manager, and members of the Planning Board and Cambridge Historical Commission: Citywide up-zoning (the Affordable Housing Overlay – AHO) is advancing to a vote. This will allow developers to construct massive new buildings everywhere. Existing residential zoning will be scuttled, and 1-3 story homes and businesses can be replaced with 4-5 to 8-story structures with up to 8X the density. Current parking, set-backs, green space and community oversight will be annulled. We need your help to stop this radical move! THE RUSH TO PASS UPZONING: The city of Cambridge is moving to push through radical up-zoning without proper impact studies. If passed, this will be hard to change. Now that the process has begun, the City will try to pass the zoning between August 13th and October 7th while many people are away on vacation. The City is marketing this with a series of poorly advertised meetings, often changing zoning language afterwards to obscure the substance. No other U.S. city has proposed such a radical city-wide up-zoning. Cambridge is the fifth most dense U.S. city of 100,000+ people. Adding yet more density is not the solution. This developer-driven plan brings more gentrification and forces out long-term residents. Our city is fast becoming one of rich and poor. We have added 9,000 housing units, surpassing state mandates, yet housing prices are still increasing, and vacancy nears 10%. We need a smarter, equitable plan that preserves current citizen rights & design processes, while promoting more diversity & middle income needs. CONSEQUENCES OF THIS UPZONING PROPOSAL • Encourages tear-downs & displacement • Promotes tall, massive, box-like buildings • Allows greenspace & mature tree removal • Supports 2 to 8 X taller and larger buildings • Removes ability of citizens to appeal decisions • Adds traffic congestion by removing parking • Uses outdated model of economic segregation • Raises some property values & lowers others • Makes developer rights unequal, promoting law suits • Increases residential property taxes across city • Alters city livability and character all over Far too many questions remain unanswered. Neighborhood Impacts: the impacts likely will be felt on every other nearby site and will transform both the neighborhood and the city. Why? Because Special Permits are granted for other non-affordable building projects based on context (how a building fits in with its specific setting) and the nearby context will now be defined by a new tall massive structure which becomes the new "norm." Once a 4.5 or 7 story building that towers over nearby ones is in place, this massive new structure becomes the context that all new structures are compared with regardless of function. Without the requirement of setbacks local streets like Huron, Concord, Cambridge, Mt. Auburn, and Massachusetts Ave. will have a very canyon-like feel, a tall ripple of box-like structures. Without the requisite required parking, traffic circulation will get even worse – impacting the environment (and daily lives), in much the same way as the displacement of green spaces and mature trees. Local Residents and Business Impacts: Once one or more of these much larger structures is being built (and even before then) nearby property values will increase and both housing & store lease prices will rise. Local stores and amenities that made this neighborhood especially appealing will likely close, and housing here generally will become even more expensive while real estate developers and investors will have made large profits and public expense. Even before the first AHO tall building goes up, anticipation of the change is sending real estate prices soaring making it even harder to find affordable housing in Cambridge - even with the current 10% vacancy rate. While the city is increasingly becoming one of rich and poor, and the % of homeowning population in the Boston area is well below the national average, nothing in this proposal will help people with lower incomes purchase homes; and very little in the AHO helps our very low or the middle-income residents. Financial and Gentrification Impacts: While the city-wide up-zoning will only be for 100% affordable projects, these projects will impact both the area and the city as a whole. Property values will escalate and soon the whole street may become a site of largely new 50 -or 80-feet buildings. Of concern too is whether the up-zoning Overlay, in bringing more and more residential housing (both affordable and luxury) into Cambridge will skew the tax base and the required 70 -30 relationship between commercial and residential income, requiring the city manager to raise taxes, funds that would go into the general fund and not to specific areas of concern. .