City Council Meeting – May 12th, 2025

Have an opinion and want to share it? Contact the Council at council@cambridgema.gov. To be on the record, CC the city clerk at cityclerk@cambridgema.gov. Sign up to speak for public comment here. Signup opens at 9AM on the business day before the meeting.

Meeting Link

City Manager’s Agenda

Reports and Communications

  • #1 (CMA 2025 #118) Technical corrections to the Floodplain Zoning text

Policy Orders

Requests that the city…

  • #1 (POR 2025 #71) meet with the Harvard Square Business Association to explore the possible redevelopment of the currently abandoned Harvard Square MBTA tunnel into a, “revitalized commercial or cultural space,” and to provide $72,000 to fund an RFP for a tunnel engineering study
  • #2 (POR 2025 #72) work with the School Department, the DPW, and other parties to ensure that all city owned parking lots, in particular CPS ones, are available for use by residents during “off” hours

Charter Rights

  • #1 (POR 2025 #68) Instructs the CDD to investigate the effectiveness of the Inclusionary Housing Ordinance and explore potential amendments to address the lack of “housing starts”
  • #2 (POR 2025 #69) Requests that the FY26 budget include funding for emergency housing vouchers, the Transition Wellness Center, and a successor to Rise Up Cambridge
  • #3 (POR 2025 #70) Instructs the CDD to draft a zoning proposal to codify first-floor retail by right in residential districts
  • #4 (APP 2025 #19) Curb cut – Matt Mayo – 49 Alpine Street

On the Table

  • #1 (CMA 2025 #113) City staff have met with Interim Superintendent David Murphy and will further investigate allowing the general public to use the King Open school parking lot during off hours

All comments are from members of our comment team.

2 responses to “City Council Meeting – May 12th, 2025”

  1. Charles J. Franklin Avatar
    Charles J. Franklin

    Ordinarily, I don’t include On the Table agenda items in my posts. However, CMA 2025 #113 is very likely to be untabled this meeting.

  2. Charles J. Franklin Avatar
    Charles J. Franklin

    Although I supported the PO to potentially open the King Open School parking to the public after school hours to mitigate loss of parking due to bike lane construction, I don’t support PO #2 (POR 2025 #72). Unlike the King Open PO, this PO is much more likely to induce demand for parking. People who wouldn’t have driven will decide to drive because suddenly there’s more parking available. And it will be free to residents so there will be little incentive for people to leave the spaces and make them available for others. Unless we plan on widening our streets, adding parking is a terrible idea.

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