Community Development > Mass Ave Planning Study - Cambridge Common to Alewife Brook Parkway

Mass Ave Planning Study - Cambridge Common to Alewife Brook Parkway

From Winter 2024 to Spring 2025, the Mass Ave Planning Study (MAPS), spearheaded by the Cambridge Community Development Department, created a vision plan for what Massachusetts Avenue will look like in 2040 between Alewife Brook Parkway and Cambridge Common.

This plan is part of the implementation of Envision Cambridge, the City's comprehensive plan. It studied various aspects such as land use, zoning, urban design, housing, climate resiliency, small business support, mobility, and public space.

The team worked with the community to develop a shared vision to shape future development types and scales, and led an engagement process to capture all the voices that call this part of Mass Ave home.

Latest Updates

Mass Ave Zoning Adopted

Happy New Year! On December 22, 2025 the Cambridge City Council voted to adopt the Mass Ave Zoning petition. To read the most up-to-date version of the petition and view the zoning map, please click on the links below:

The City Council also adopted a policy order which directs staff, through the City Manager, to draft separate zoning language to require active ground floor uses in Porter Square, which staff have begun working on.

Additional updates will be posted as that petition progresses. In the meantime, please visit the Adopted Zoning Amendments page on our website for more information on the Mass Ave Zoning.

Read the plan!

Community Engagement

MAPS Community Meeting - Final Planning Study Recommendations

On April 10, 2025, we held our final meeting of the planning study process. We've got all the materials to share. Please click here to view the presentation boards that summarized the recommendations. We also handed out a newspaper to read all about it!

After many Working Group and community meetings, focus groups, business interviews, thousands of survey responses and countless conversations with community members, we are thrilled to share the work.

This meeting presented the suite of recommendations developed with the community over the course of the sixteen-month planning process. The recommendations cover the entire study area, from Cambridge Common to Alewife Brook Parkway, with multiple focus areas, including South of Porter, North Mass Ave, and Porter Square.

The Community Development department shared ideas that will help to:

Make Mass Ave more beautiful
Produce more housing
Provide more neighborhood amenities
Support small businesses
Improve sidewalks and walkability

To view the materials from the meeting, please visit the Meeting Materials section of the website.

Project Materials

Working Group Meetings

MAPS Working Group - Meeting 9 (MAPS Zoning Recommendations) 03/13/25 presentation
MAPS Working Group - Meeting 9 (MAPS Zoning Recommendations) 03/13/25 video
MAPS Working Group - Meeting 8 (North Mass Ave + Porter Square Final Recommendations) 02/26/24 presentation
MAPS Working Group - Meeting 8 (North Mass Ave + Porter Square Final Recommendations) 02/26/24 video
MAPS Working Group - Meeting 7 (Zoning - NMA and South of Porter) 12/11/24 presentation
MAPS Working Group - Meeting 7 (Zoning - NMA and South of Porter) 12/11/24 video
MAPS Working Group - Meeting 6 (North Mass Ave) 10/30/24 presentation
MAPS Working Group - Meeting 6 (North Mass Ave) 10/30/24 video
MAPS Working Group - Meeting 5 (North Mass Ave) 10/11/24 presentation and meeting minutes
MAPS Working Group - Meeting 4 (South of Porter) 06/27/24 presentation
MAPS Working Group - Meeting 4 (South of Porter) 06/27/24 video
MAPS Working Group - Meeting 3 (South of Porter) 04/24/24 presentation
MAPS Working Group - Meeting 2 (South of Porter) 03/14/24 video
MAPS Working Group - Meeting 2 (South of Porter) 03/14/24 presentation
MAPS Working Group - Meeting 1 02/08/24 video
MAPS Working Group - Meeting 1 02/08/24 presentation

Community Meetings

MAPS Community Meeting 8 (Plan Recommendations) 04/10/25 meeting boards and newspaper
MAPS Community Meeting 7 (Porter Square) 01/30/25 presentation
MAPS Community Meeting 7 (Porter Square) 01/30/25 video
MAPS Community Meeting 6 (North Mass Ave) 11/14/24 online open house feedback form and boards
MAPS Community Meeting 5 (North Mass Ave) 09/26/24 presentation
MAPS Community Meeting 5 (North Mass Ave) 09/26/24 video and chat
MAPS Community Meeting 4 (South of Porter) 07/25/24 presentation
MAPS Community Meeting 4 (South of Porter) 07/25/24 video
MAPS Community Meeting 3 (South of Porter) 05/29/24 meeting boards
MAPS Community Meeting 2 (South of Porter) 03/27/24 presentation
MAPS Community Meeting 1 02/29/24 video and transcript
MAPS Community Meeting 1 02/29/24 presentation

MAPS Report

Working Project Schedule

Study Area

The Study Area for the Mass Ave Planning Study stretches from the Cambridge Common to Alewife Brook Parkway, two miles of Mass Ave.

map with streets and colored lines

Key Resources

Local and Area Plans

Citywide Plans

Envision Cambridge (2019)
Resilient Cambridge Plan (2021)
Urban Forest Master Plan (2020)
Five-year Sidewalk and Street Reconstruction Plans (ongoing)
Ten-year Infrastructure Plans (ongoing)
Cambridge Bicycle Plan (2020)

Links to Neighborhood Planning

Mass Ave Planning Study Working Group

For a more complete description of the working group and its members please reference the City Council packet from January 22, 2024 (page 88)