CRT 2016 # 2 · Communication to the City Council · Jan 11 2016

MAPOCO – Something Special • How do we preserve and improve it? • A proven and fruitful strategic partnership with the City, Harvard and Lesley • Behind us are hundreds of residents that are committed to making GOOD THINGS happen • We have a 10 point plan to advance the process

HLS Wasserstein Center – Modern yet Contextually Compatible

Lunder Center studio building and handsomely repurposed church – Contextually Compatible

Lesley Admissions Office – Contextually Compatible

Pre-war Apartment Building with ground level retail

Beloved CLF-type Retailers

Distinctive Local Restaurants

We need parking for many reasons

Glass curtain wall is widely considered incongruous

This is widely considered incongruous

This is good design but debatable contextually

It is possible to design new buildings that are Contextually Compatible

It is also possible to design new buildings that reflect the local vernacular

~400 people voted against this.

Why? • Not pedestrian friendly • Loss of existing parking spaces • Not enough parking for new dwelling units • Loading zone would take away even more parking • Inadequate rear setback • Cut down shade trees to put a bicycle shed • Entrance not facing Mass Av • Bad garbage plan - dumpsters by Mass Av sidewalk • Displace an existing service business

Overview - 10 Planks of today’s Petition 1. Pedestrian friendly avenue 6. No Stilt Buildings 2. Better design guidelines 7. Retain F&B use variances 3. Re-widen sidewalks over time 8. Encourage CLF type stores 4. Protect abutters behind 9. No canyoning of historic bldgs. 5. Solve the parking challenge 10. Preserve the current scale

MAPOCO Petition Sponsors Peter Kroon Fred Meyer Ruth Ryals Bill King Stephen Diamond Frank Kramer Charlotte Moore Dennis Carlone Steve Beaucher Willie Bloomstein Nicole Caplan Rosemary Porter Dominick Jones Robin Kelly Jo Ann Citron Mike Bentley Allen Sayegh John Kuehnle

1. Ground level, pedestrian friendly retail and other non-residential uses for all new construction • Implement zoning sub-district identical to the Northern Mass Av Sub- district from Roseland down to Chauncy/Everett • Ground level non-residential is required for 75% of frontage • No ground level labs, manufacturing, assembly, etc. • Banks limited to 25’ wide • Increase required non-res depth to 40’ (before parking can begin) • Incentives for more gracious retail space

2. Give better design guidance so we get buildings that fit in with the area • Expand the purpose paragraph to specifically recommend or require that buildings be Compatible in Context • Update or replace the Urban Design Guidelines Handbook to show real buildings in the area that successfully do this (not just Victorian) • Goal is to save developers and us time, money and aggravation

3. Re-widen the sidewalks over the next 20 years as the avenue gets redeveloped • All new buildings are currently required to have 5’ front setback, or they can match the non-setback of an adjacent building • We propose to eliminate the exception. This is the only way to re- widen the sidewalks. • Note: This will create a jigsaw effect in some places for a period of time. That is not a bad thing.

4. Avoid new buildings on Mass Av towering over existing homes behind them • We need appropriate rear set backs behind new construction • Residential B rear setback is 25’ plus 1’ additional for every 4’ the lot depth exceeds 100’ up to a total of 35’ • Business A-2 setback requirement is the greater of 20’ or 2/3 the height of the rear wall of the new building. • Rule should be the greater of the two zoning requirements when a parcel or parcels spanning more than one zone is treated as a single development site

5. Provide parking for our merchants and protect side streets from more compaction • Our inner streets are already congested due to apartment buildings, multi- family buildings and institutions like Lesley, therefore: • Require NO LOSS OF EXISTING PARKING. • Require new residential buildings to have one parking space per dwelling unit as per current zoning. • Use development bonuses, variances and special permits to incentivize developers to build more than the 1:1 so that any surplus can be rented to local merchants, service providers and others. • How about a discreet, enclosed parking garage! (with charging stations)

6. No Stilt Buildings! • Clarify that NO ground level parking (i.e. not just structured) directly facing Mass Av is a permitted use.

7. Retain variance requirement for F&B uses • MAPOCO is zoned Business A-2 now, so Fast Order Food requires a variance. • If we adopt the North Mass Av sub-district language, which permits Fast Order Food as a required ground floor use, we want to carve out MAPOCO so we keep our status quo. • This is not snobbery – issues include noise, smells, garbage plan, litter, in & out traffic patterns, adjacency.

8. Encourage more Cambridge Local First type businesses (vs. national chain outlets). • Right now the by-right threshold for leased premises is 5,000 sq in total (i.e. including basement and second floor space accessed through the premises). • Many independent shops can’t afford large premises and high rents. • We want to encourage more stores and more creative use of second stories and basements, so we propose 2,000 sf by-right counting only the ground level. In other words, a store could have an entrance at grade and an 8,000 sf second story or basement (like Abbey). • 25’ wide storefront x 60’ typical depth = 1500 sf

Example of a jewel box business in just 600 sf

9. Ensure that Identified Historical Structures are not canyoned by new construction. • Require minimum 10’ setbacks on new construction adjacent to Identified Historical Structures • Require corner transitions on abutting properties to preserve the visual impact of historical buildings • Require appropriate massing set backs

10. Preserve the scale of the neighborhood Encourage gracious retail spaces • Delete paragraph that allows for 50’ height building, and replace the language to say that overall building height can increase above the 45’ allowed in Business A-2 when the first floor to second floor elevation exceeds 15’ but only up to a maximum of 50’ total building height.

Priorities 1. Ground level non-residential (extend North Mass Av sub-district) 2. Carve out Fast Order Food to retain the status quo 3. Add our historic buildings to the list 4. Lower threshold for store leases to 2,000 sf at ground level 5. No loss of parking; incentives for new excess parking 6. Find a better way to guide design 7. Protect historical buildings from canyoning 8. Disallow screwy set back calculations 9. Remove front set back exemption 10. Reinforce 45’ scale, up to 50’ in case of exceptional retail space