A 23-condo building at 8 Winter St., East Cambridge, won Planning Board approval Tuesday with a few largely technical conditions to make sure the project complies with design and zoning needs.
Since the project was permitted in 2023 at the site of a former Dunkin’ Donuts, laws for the land under it have change twice – first with the coming of multifamily zoning, then with zoning to shape a major traffic and housing corridor, Cambridge Street.
The previous owner of 8 Winter St. got a variance from the Board of Zoning Appeal to demolish the one-story Dunkin’, and they got a building permit for a five-story residential building. With passage of multifamily zoning amendments in February 2025, four stories were allowed by right and six if the building followed inclusionary zoning laws to include affordable units in 20 percent of square footage. The new owner, Syed Jafry, asked to add a sixth floor.
Construction began, The building’s foundation and elevator were in place, according to a Community Development Department memo, when Cambridge Street zoning was adopted in January. That brought new design standards and requirements for the space around buildings on their lot.
A special permit for 8 Winter St. would grant relief on the setbacks, a couple of minor architectural details and allowing entrance from Third Street.
Approval without much enthusiasm
Board approval was muted; vice chair Mary Flynn gave developers a “you’ve come a long way, and you’re very close,” while member Mary Lydecker extended an excuse: “It’s a challenging site.” Most board remarks urged the developers to refer to the CDD memo for ways to keep improving, even if incrementally, on the materials chosen and tweaks to elements of the final design.
“Echoing the staff memo, the public realm and the landscape is not complete,” Lydecker said, taking staff to task also for what she felt was a less than rigorous accounting for details such as soil depth and tree protection that wouldn’t have passed muster in neighboring Somerville. “This is not it to me. This is extremely underwhelming.”
Neighbors had worries about how they would be affected by management of trash, snow removal and traffic, which member Carolyn Zern (who called the building “a little bit retrograde”) waved off as stuff to be talked through eventually with a condo association.
Lydecker hoped to get issues worked out earlier. “I have no comments on your elevator core and your floor plates – those are going up,” she told developers. “The community around you has said things that there’s still time to get right, if not by a designer, then by a landscape contractor who can help you make sure that that it’s worthy of redevelopment in Cambridge.”
The strongest backer of the building was member Ashley Tan. “I actually love the look,” she said. “I love the balconies. I love the different colors on the side of the wall that has fewer windows. Overall, I support.”
“I know it’s a unique site,” Tan said.
In the zone
This is the first project before the board within the new Cambridge Street districts – and, as pointed out by Jafry’s attorney, Patrick Barrett, “the only permitted [inclusionary zoning] project in the city.” He credited the board on Tuesday with saving it. In January, he sued the city in state Land Court over the same inclusionary zoning rules because he considers them an unconstitutional land taking that makes development of big projects too expensive.
The site is between Monsignor O’Brien Highway, Winter Street and Third Street, with a private way around its side and rear that connects Third and Winter streets.
The Cambridge Streets zoning was “designed to expand the public realm and support active primary streets,” which in this case is O’Brien Highway – but the site is oriented toward Third Street and disconnected from the primary street by a landscaped sidewalk bump-out, the CDD memo says. So the project meets the general goals of the zoning without meeting them, and it is within the zone but not, so to speak, in the zone.
“This site is within the Cambridge Street Districts but not directly located on the corridor, so some of the district’s objectives may be less applicable,” the memo says.
The condo owners will get 24 long-term and four short-term bicycle parking spaces, but no parking for cars because the parcel is considered near MBTA bus service on O’Brien Highway and within walking distance of the Lechmere green line T station.
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