A mixed-income housing project can go forward on the parking lot of the Margaret Fuller House community center, members of the Cambridge Board of Zoning Appeal decided Thursday in a unanimous vote. The Cambridge Redevelopment Authority is buying the lot from the nonprofit, at 71 Cherry St. in The Port neighborhood, and providing technical help to restore its historic building.
“Sale of the property here will allow Margaret Fuller to continue its mission,” said attorney James Rafferty, representing the nonprofit to the board.
With approval, the authority expects to return in the fall to present to the community and get feedback on ideas for design, said Alex Cardelle, a project manager at the CRA. The project has been described as building around a dozen apartments, townhomes or condos in 10,000 to 12,000 square feet, with construction starting in 2028.
With money from the sale of the parking lot, the community center is expected to be able to begin renovations this winter for an upgraded food pantry – moving it out of the basement – and community meeting space, according to an authority timeline. The sale price is $3.5 million and forgiveness of the nonprofit’s $250,000 line of credit with the CRA, according to a November memo by Cardelle.
The board needed to weigh in because of the constraints of subdividing the nonprofit’s property while keeping the historic house intact – the childhood home of pioneering female war correspondent Fuller was built in 1807 – and creating a side setback that allows vehicle access to its food pantry, such as for deliveries.
The center has been in operation since 1902, “a stalwart supporter of the neighborhood on Cherry Street and surrounding areas,” Rafferty said, noting the pantry, computer lab and after-school programs.
Petition opposes the project
Board members weren’t bothered by a 368-foot problem created by the shape of a 8,140-square-foot lot, bumping the ratio of livable space to lot area to 0.79 when the requirement is 0.75.
Not so some neighbors.
Daniel Jeffs, of the abutting Eaton Street, submitted a petition with about 135 signatures arguing to deny the variance and keep the parking lot in place for food pantry use and doctors and staff at the Cambridge Health Alliance clinic on Windsor Street. That would spare the neighborhood from getting 40 to 50 new residents and more competition for parking “what is already one of the highest concentrations of affordable housing in the city.”
Services burden neighbors
The CRA and Margaret Fuller House began talks in 2019 and signed a working commitment two years later. A first neighbors petition that year asked the city to buy the lot and make it a park. “We need to preserve open space, and there’s not enough parking for residents as it is,” Jeffs’ petition said.
“I talked to numerous neighbors and abutters and they all are opposed to the housing plan,” Jeffs said.
While “they help a lot of people in the community, and it’s a really good thing, being a neighbor is very tough, because they essentially operate a grocery store out of the pantry with none of the regulations that a grocery store would have,” Jeffs said of the Margaret Fuller House. He described a traffic burden from delivery trucks that need space to unload and patrons who need to park to pick up food.
“They cannot operate in the proposed footprint without undue detriment to the surrounding neighbors,” the petition argued, while noting that upon closing a long-standing daycare program a few years ago due to financial hardship, the nonprofit removed a playground that the community helped build.
Housing aligns with city policy
The board didn’t find much to latch onto from the petition. There hasn’t been required parking minimums on construction in Cambridge since a City Council vote in October 2022, and Selvin L. Chambers III, chief executive of The Margaret Fuller Neighborhood House, said most food pantry customers walk rather then drive.
In the understanding of the board, “the existing parking lot is an asset to the Margaret Fuller House that needs to be tapped into to sustain its operation and to continue its viability into the future,” member Brandan Sullivan said. “They are going to have to tap into that asset one way or the other” to continue the nonprofit’s mission.
“If it is affordable housing, that’s a win that aligns with city policy,” Sullivan said.
The Cambridge Redevelopment Authority is investing in mixed-income housing and affordable homeownership projects citywide from a $48 million endowment built from the sale of development rights in Kendall Square, it was explained at an April 14 panel talk called “Beyond Urban Renewal.”
In this case, the CRA is also partnering with the nonprofit to see a historic building restored and keep charitable services running. The services of the Margaret Fuller House are provided for free to help people move beyond the need for support, Chambers said, “and this will allow us opportunity to deepen our mission and serve more people.”
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