During an often heated city council meeting, housing actually provided some harmony, as Cambridge officials presented a long-anticipated report on how to streamline the city’s permitting process.
While big policy changes like the multifamily housing ordinance relaxed many site requirements for residential buildings city-wide, developers could not build until they navigated a permitting quagmire convoluted enough to rank Cambridge dead last in regulatory efficiency by the Red Tape Index in its list of the top 500 most populous cities.
City Manager Yi-An Huang hinted that regulatory reform was on the horizon in an interview with Cambridge Day in April…