The con. From: Carolyn Shipley <carolyn_shipley@yahoo.com> Date: Wednesday, March 24, 2021 at 2:08 PM To: Suzanne Blier <suzannepblier@gmail.com> Cc: Doug Brown <douglas_p_brown@yahoo.com>, Fritz Donovan <fritzdonov@aol.com>, Chuck Hinds <chuckhinds@msn.com>, Michael Brandon <mjbrandon@gmail.com>, Ruth Ryals <rryals@comcast.net>, Ann Tennis <jatennis@comcast.net> Subject: Re: Please forward - Call to Action! Proposed Citywide up-zoning - devastating impacts This is zoning that makes a mockery out of the city’s rather misguided but loudly touted tree moratorium, because even now the PB is allowing and has allowed tear downs and new construction that takes away open green space and uproots trees. This middle housing proposals will do away with more trees and especially open green space where trees could grow. The city worries about its tree canopy and penalizes homeowners if they have to remove a dangerous or dead tree. Yet, they don’t seem to see what this proposed zoning will do to the city’s tree canopy. Please mention this as one of your points in your correspondence with the city. Carolyn On Mar 24, 2021, at 12:01 PM, Suzanne Blier <suzannepblier@gmail.com> wrote: Please Forward to your Friends/Neighborhood Lists etc. Dear Friends, Please help us OPPOSE the proposed “Missing Middle Housing” MMH citywide up-zoning now under review that will allow investors and developers to build far taller and bigger luxury (market-rate) homes in back yards and as current housing replacements! What we need instead are MORE affordable housing options, paths to home ownership, and addressing our own density challenges now – utilities, infrastructure, traffic, and the environment. This proposed Cambridge citywide up-zoning petition is being promoted by the National Association of Home builders (NAHB) and their local allies. It will NOT create affordable housing, but rather will displace tenants as their buildings are sold to make way for luxury developments. It will also increase density throughout the city, diminishing our tree canopy and limiting green spaces. Please Sign the Petition HERE or at http://bit.ly/wakeupcambridge Read more at CCCoalition.Org and join our effort. Please forward this letter on to your friends and neighbors. Encourage them also to go to the CCCoalition.org website to read more about the “Missing Middle Housing” (MMH) Upzoning Proposal. Call to Action! March 30 Planning Board meeting on this up-zoning. Please write them before 5 PM Monday night Mar. 29 c/o sjoseph@cambridgema.gov AND equally more importantly sign up to speak virtually at this critical meeting via computer or telephone: -Select meeting date from the City’s Open Meeting Portal to open the Agenda: https://bit.ly/3vJd4hk -Use the link to “Register for Zoom Webinar,” 24 hours prior to meeting until meeting start. Check email for link Under the false promise of providing more affordable housing, this proposal puts a bullseye on single-family and two or three-deckers throughout Cambridge. How? By slashing setbacks on all sides and allowing 40-foot-tall buildings on every property. The result: Dorm-level density allowed on even the smallest streets. Each lot can be maxed out, including demolishing and replacing an existing home entirely - all with NO design review or concern for even direct abutters. New owners could also decide to build themselves a McMansion, adding stories and additions that can tower over their neighbors. If new units are created, NO off-street parking would be required - no matter how many new cars might reasonably be expected. <image001.png> We DO NOT believe the MMH up-zoning is good for Cambridge. This building model was created not for dense historic cities like Cambridge but for rural settings and far less populated suburbs on the outskirts of big cities like L.A., Chicago and Minneapolis. This is NOT affordable housing: Only developments of 10 or more units are required to provide any affordable housing. Land and construction costs in Cambridge are among the very highest in the US; most new units would have to be luxury, not even middle-income, to make the return-on-investment work. As the 10% most densely populated city in the country, and one with hundreds of new units already added every year under existing rules, Cambridge needs smart growth, not a modern-day land rush that displaces current tenants. What people here are saying about the city-wide up-zoning "Missing Middle" proposal? "Asking for-profit developers to fix the affordable housing problem is like asking an arsonist to put out their own fire. What is their incentive?" in "Black Response Cambridge Up-zoning Petition: 'Missing Middle' Fails for Housing Affordability" in Cambridge Day, Feb. 15, 2021. -Stephanie Guirand, Cambridgeport Resident, Graduate Student and Author "The 'Missing Middle' is a blanket policy that leaves out and misses the presence of already diverse residential portfolios that the city offers and that should be enhanced and not opened up to speculative and short-sighted speed of building over quality housing. Community design review is essential to the success of any development regardless of size, by addressing the context in which it will exist and the lives it will host." -Fabrizio Gentili, East Cambridge Resident and Realtor There is no middle class in the city of Cambridge and there is no middle-income housing in the city of Cambridge. You are either rich or you are poor in the city of Cambridge and the City has to do a better job providing middle income housing for us." -Greg O'Bannon. Resident of the Port. Transportation Worker "The desired scale and density of the so-called Missing Middle has long been in place in Cambridge. Advocates for the 'Missing Middle' (including developers) many from out of town, decry the fact that many homes were built before current zoning laws, and do not meet these minimums, wanting to rebuild the entire city according to new far taller and denser zoning (now in place for dorms) and fill in open spaces between homes, removing trees and green spaces." -Fritz Donovan, Esq. Mid-Cambridge Resident. Immigration Attorney "The 'Missing Middle' Proposal is nothing more than a developer's money-making scheme that will result in excessive over building and will strain our already stressed infrastructure. Despite its catchy slogan. It is an over development Frankenstein, advanced without regard to real housing demands and other city needs. -Katiti Kironde, North Cambridge, Designer "We are the middle. There are many multi-family free standing homes that pepper the neighborhood. 'Missing Middle' will displace current residents like us so investors and private contractors can tear down our homes, eradicate our small green space and make money rebuilding at great cost that they pass on to our replacements as we join the missing. That's a construction jobs program and private developers' boondoggle, not a solution to a housing crisis." - Phil Wellons. Riverside Resident. Consultant Want to donate or volunteer to help? Go to CCCoalition.org or email us at info@CCCoalition1@gmail.com <Missing middle petition letter CCC 3.24.21.docx>