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Towards a Sustainable Future:
Cambridge Growth Policy Document

About the Policy
2007 Cambridge Growth Management Document
1993 Cambridge Growth Management Document
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About the Policy

The 2007 Cambridge growth policy document entitled Toward a Sustainable Future: Cambridge Growth Policy Update 2007 revises the first plan that set forth guidelines for the evolution of the physical environment of the community. In 1992, the city undertook a process which resulted in a series of growth policies that guided growth and development in Cambridge over the next 15 years. The original document anticipated periodic revisiting of the growth policies. This 2007 update comes at an appropriate time, following the work of the Growth Management Advisory Committee and the City Council’s Citywide and Eastern Cambridge zoning revisions of 2001 and the Concord-Alewife zoning changes of 2006.

The growth policies in the document continue to address the many issues with which neighborhoods, elected officials, the Planning Board and the Community Development Department are concerned. The accompanying narrative and illustrations highlight the many changes in public policy that have influenced development over the last decade, including the complete overhaul of zoning noted above; the end of rent control and the ramping up of the city’s affordable housing development efforts through Inclusionary Zoning and the adoption of the Community Preservation Act; the adoption of the Parking and Transportation Demand Management (PTDM) Ordinance; the rise of biotechnology and life sciences as a mainstay of our local economy; the continued push to expand and improve the city’s supply of open space; and the city’s ground-breaking efforts to address the effects of climate change.

The original document continues to be posted in this set of Community Planning documents, as it has historical background that was not repeated in the current update.

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2007 Cambridge Growth Management Document

A key portion of the "Growth Policy Document" is the series of seventy policies found throughout the test.

View the text of the policies themselves.

. These files are in PDF format and require use of the free Adobe Acrobat viewer.

Towards a Sustainable Future: Cambridge Growth Policy Update 2007 (7.9 MB)
Table of Contents and Introduction (1.8 MB)
Land Use (409 KB)
Transportation (610 KB)
Housing (587 KB)
Economic Development and Employment (435 KB)
Institutions (399 KB)
Urban Design (748 KB)
Open Space (602 KB)
Environment and Sustainability (532 KB)
Looking Toward the Future (396 KB)
Growth Policy Tables (1.9 MB)

1993 Cambridge Growth Management Document

These files are in PDF format and require use of the free Adobe Acrobat viewer.

Towards a Sustainable Future: Draft Cambridge Growth Policy Document - Entire Document (15 MB)
Preface and Introduction (1.0 MB)
Chapter 1: Cambridge in Context (1.2 MB)
Chapter 2: Historical Background (976 KB)
Chapter 3: The Changing Context for Growth and Development (522 KB)
Chapter 4: Growth Policy Workshops (678 KB)
Chapter 5: A Vision for Cambridge (619 KB)
Chapter 6: Land Use (1.4 MB)
Chapter 7: Transportation (1.6 MB)
Chapter 8: Housing (1.2 MB)
Chapter 9: Economic Development and Employment (1.0 MB)
Chapter 10: Institutions (1.3 MB)
Chapter 11: Urban Design and Environment (1.1 MB)
Chapter 12: Open Space (1.2 MB)
Appendix A: MAPC's Metro Plan 2000 (104 KB)
Appendix B: Background Data (1.3 MB)
Appendix C: Glossary