As apartment and condo projects pop up across Cambridge in response to zoning changes from the past few years, a housing needs study due in early 2027 will pull together data for the first time in 10 years on affordability, demographics and demand, said Chris Cotter, director of Housing, at Monday’s meeting of the City Council.
It could affect production targets set in 2017 that encouraged the changes in law, including multifamily zoning enacted last year. “This is very important, and I feel like it should have preceded our upzoning,” said councillor Cathie Zusy, author of the April policy order asking for the study.
The in-house study will include information from other reports expected this summer and fall and “expose areas where policy and planning efforts, as well as new development, can address community housing need,” Cotter wrote in a memo to city manager Yi-An Huang.
A study expected this summer looks at inclusionary housing laws, which require bigger market-rate residential developments to set aside a percentage of their square footage to be affordable housing, according to Cotter’s memo. The current 20 percent level could emerge changed.
Interviews with real estate professionals and housing market research will look at how development costs and expected returns on investment affect the feasibility of housing development in the city, what Cotter referred to as changes in “development economics over the past decade.” Unmentioned was that in January, local attorney and developer Patrick Barrett sued the city in state Land Court because he considers inclusionary zoning rules to be an unconstitutional land taking that makes development of big projects too expensive.
An incentive zoning study due in the fall will analyze the “linkage fees” on office and lab developments that fund housing stabilization and job training. This latest linkage study will survey nonresidents with Cambridge jobs, “how many of them are looking to live in the city and search for housing,” Cotter said. “That will give us some sense as to what those needs are.”
The final, aggregate study will be similar to a housing profile done in 2016 and a Neighborhood Statistical Profile completed in 2023 and include population projections; the needs of older adults, children and people with disabilities; and statistics on the local economy, jobs and housing affordability. The share of households at different income levels in different neighborhoods will be included, according to Cotter’s memo, as well as existing housing supply by neighborhood and housing starts by neighborhood.
A citywide master plan called Envision Cambridge finished in 2019 set a goal of seeing 12,500 homes added to the city by 2030, which was based on regional need projections from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council in 2017. Since then, with an Affordable Housing Overlay and Multifamily Housing Ordinances passed in 2020, 2023 and 2025, as well as other zoning that encourage housing, “conditions have changed substantially,” Zusy said in April, citing “a global pandemic, significant increases in construction and financing costs and economic headwinds affecting our universities, research institutions and life science sector – all of which have contributed to rental vacancies and slowed the production of rental and ownership housing.”
The MAPC now projects that the population of Cambridge at around 162,790 in 2050, up from the 121,186 residents – an all-time peak – counted in a census two years ago.
In addition to updating the housing profile, the Community Development Department plans to create a housing production dashboard with up-to-date information on incoming housing projects, allowing interested residents to track developments.
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