These are just some of the municipal meetings and civic events for the coming week. More are on the City Calendar and in the city’s Open Meetings Portal.
More six-story projects pitched
Mid-Cambridge Neighborhood Conservation District Commission, 6 to 8 p.m. Tuesday. Another Ellery street project – this one at 106 Ellery St. – would see a detached home built behind a three-story, three-family house built in 1880, which would get exterior alterations and restoration. There’s already work the commission has been considering under multifamily zoning enacted Feb. 10, 2025, at 88 Ellery St., where a two-story, single-family 1873 home of 4,006 square feet would get a partial demolition and a rear addition of six stories; a similar six-story multifamily development at 84-86 Ellery St.; and a six-story project at 60 Ellery St. that’s around the corner from a six-story project at 406 Broadway. Two blocks east there’s a proposal to build a four-story addition to 9 Ellsworth Ave., an 1870 house with three units in what assessors call a home with two and a quarter stories. At the City Hall Annex, 344 Broadway, Mid-Cambridge, and watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
Letter about Healthpeak biking
Bicycle Committee special meeting, 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Wednesday. Members discuss a draft letter weighing in on the application coming to the Planning Board from the life sciences developer Healthpeak. It foresees turning a largely industrial Alewife Quadrangle area in the Cambridge Highlands into a new neighborhood of 20 buildings, including 2,076 homes in buildings of up to 12 stories, retail and a pedestrian and bike bridge over rail tracks that brings residents near the Alewife red line T stop. Many want a commuter rail stop nearby too. Watchable by videoconferencing.
Harriet Jacobs hotel and homes
Board of Zoning Appeal, 6 p.m. Thursday. A proposed Harvard Square hotel-and-homes project returns to the approval process just long enough to explain a delay to Sept. 24, developer Patrick Barrett said. The Harriet Jacobs House, where an author who escaped slavery ran a boarding house for Harvard students and faculty in the 1800s, would be reoriented at Mount Auburn and Story streets, refurbished, given a museum and connected with eight stories of units to be built behind it, with a three-story structure on the lot torn down to make room. The project is before the board as developers ask to move closer to sidewalks – and therefore farther from the homes of neighbors who are conflicted about it going up. The change could also “normalize the footprint” and add residential square footage, the developer said. Before that hearing, the board expects to spend all of 15 minutes deciding whether a New York chain called 7th Street Burger can open at 37 Brattle St., a 954-square-foot space that hosted the Marine Layer clothing store until its closing this summer. The chain does made-to-order smash burgers in 18 shops, including two in Massachusetts in Boston and South Boston, and needs permission to come in as a “formula business” with trademarked branding in an area where zoning is supposed to favor nonchain businesses. It won the backing of the Harvard Square Advisory Committee at its Aug. 19 meeting. Watchable by videoconferencing.
Double house could be condos
Historical Commission, 6 to 10:30 p.m. Thursday. The appetizer is considering allowing two internally illuminated blade signs for a Workbar at 50 Church St., Harvard Square, the third of the chain’s local coworking spaces after Central and Union squares. Then comes a demolition review of the turreted double house at 178-180 Elm St. North, on the city line with Somerville and near Davis Square, where developers using Feb. 10, 2025, multifamily zoning seek to put up a four-story condominium building with a nine-car underground garage and a rooftop recreational deck. The city finds the current 1893 building, which holds six apartments but is empty, to be architecturally significant; staff recommends taking testimony from the public and reviewing plans for the redevelopment into 16 two-bedroom homes before making a further determination. Watchable by Zoom videoconferencing.
This post was updated Sept. 8, 2026, with word that one presentation to the Board of Zoning Appeal is likely to be delayed to Sept. 24.
