The developer seeking to replace the Walgreens near Porter Square with a six-story, 71-unit apartment building is suing Cambridge, arguing the city is unconstitutionally withholding a building permit until it agrees to permanently set aside 20% of the development as affordable housing.
Old North Development, led by developers Adam Siegel and Brendan Seaver, filed the lawsuit through its affiliate OND 1740 Investors LLC on Aug. 27 in Middlesex Superior Court, becoming the second developer since December to challenge Cambridge’s inclusionary housing requirement.
The proposed 61,300-square-foot mixed-use building would replace the Walgreens and the storefronts that housed longtime Cambridge businesses Simon’s Coffee Shop and Keezer’s Classic Clothing.
At the center of the lawsuit is Cambridge’s Inclusionary Housing Ordinance, which was adopted in 1998 and amended in 2017 to require developments with 10 or more units to make 20% of their residential floor area permanently affordable to income-eligible households. For the 1740 Mass. Ave. project, that would mean 14 of its 71 apartments…