Feelings were mixed in city hall on Thursday, as the City of Cambridge Community Development Department proposed changes to Cambridge’s Multifamily Housing Ordinance (MFHO) that would increase the overall amount of setbacks, require more ground-level green space, and prohibit tall buildings with units that average more than 2,000 square feet.
During the joint meeting between the Housing and Neighborhood and Long-term Planning committees, some councillors and members of the public welcomed the proposed changes as “moderate” adjustments to last year’s suite of zoning changes that abolished single and two-family districts citywide and allowed for additional heights. But the changes also upset members of two warring factions in the city: defenders of the MFHO that want the city to give the ordinance a chance as is, and opponents concerned about a surge in multi-family housing projects that want to see it repealed.
City officials attempt a balancing act
The MFHO, passed in February of 2025, enacted two major changes into the city’s zoning code: it got rid of all single and two-family districts, folding them into a large multifamily district that now makes up the majority of the city’s footprint; and it allowed for buildings up to four stories high as-of-right in all areas of that district, or up to six stories for buildings that met certain affordability requirements.
While some balked at the increased heights (dubbed upzoning), other provisions have also seen increasing levels of frustration. The MFHO allowed for the sides and back of new residential buildings to extend as far as five feet to the property line (with a minimum ten-foot setback in the front). It also set the minimum allowed amount of ground level open space to 30 percent, decreasing it from as high as 50 percent in some former districts…