A communication transmitted from Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager, relative to Awaiting Report Item Number 20-21, regarding a report on developing a Vacant Storefront Registry

C I T Y O F C A M B R I D G E Community Development Department IRAM FAROOQ Assistant City Manager for Community Development SANDRA CLARKE Deputy Director Chief of Administration KHALIL MOGASSABI Deputy Director Chief of Planning 344 Broadway Cambridge, MA 02139 Voice: [phone removed] Fax: [phone removed] TTY: [phone removed] www.cambridgema.gov To: Louis A. DePasquale, City Manager From: Iram Farooq, Assistant City Manager for Community Development Date: October 19, 2020 Re: Awaiting Report 20-21 dated March 2, 2020 regarding developing a Vacant Storefront Registry and involving Cambridge’s small business community throughout the process. In response to the above-mentioned policy order, we report the following. The City’s Retail Strategic Plan was completed in June 2017, and most of its recommendations to help Cambridge’s small businesses were implemented in Fiscal Years 2018, 2019 and 2020. One such recommendation was to document storefront vacancies best practices which was done in the Storefront Vacancy Best Practices report, completed in 2018. This report was presented at the September 12, 2018 Economic Development & University Relations Committee meeting and describes a variety of reasons for Cambridge’s ground floor storefront vacancies. Since then, the Community Development Department (CDD) staff have developed a variety of programs related to ground floor vacant storefronts including: o Created a Vacant Storefront Initiative webpage that includes: o Storefront Activation Resources including links to pop- up/activation/placemaking specialists like No Longer Empty, CultureHouse, Spaceus, and the Cambridge Arts Council. o Vacant Storefront Database, a data set updated quarterly beginning in July 2018. Information includes owner or leasing company, former tenant (if known), square footage, length of vacancy (if known), and ownership structure. o Vacant Storefront Creative Design Contest, launched in January 2019 to provide property owners with original artwork to display in their vacant storefront. o Undertook a variety of connected projects and provided access to information concerning the projects on the CDD webpage under the Economic Development Division: o Prepared District Assessments Reports, which highlight opportunities in the City’s commercial areas. The District Assessment for Central Square was completed in 2018, for Inman Square in 2019, and for Porter Square-Lower Massachusetts Ave. in February 2020. The next business and customer intercept surveys will be completed for East Cambridge in 2021. o Provided a range of resources on CDD’s Small Businesses Resources web page, including links to the Greater Boston Legal

Page 2 of 2 Services and Harvard Transactional Law Clinics, which may be available to provide assistance to small business owners. o On September 30, 2020, the Community Development Department presented to the Economic Development & University Relations Committee its final recommendations on updating the commercial land use classification system within the Cambridge Zoning Ordinance and received a favorable recommendation from the Committee. In 2020, CDD also completed a study identifying action steps to streamline permitting and licensing processes for new businesses and create journey maps of ISD and Licensing processes to make them more transparent to small businesses. Due to the COVID pandemic, CDD staff developed a variety of new programs and workshops to assist small businesses through the crisis to prevent or mitigate additional vacancies. This includes: o Awarding $3.6 million in grants and loans to support small businesses through a partnership between the City of Cambridge and Cambridge Redevelopment Authority. o Developing additional workshops for COVID-impacted small businesses. o Managing the City Manager’s Small Business Advisory Committee. The Advisory Committee is providing expert advice and has developed best practices, recommendations, and guidance on how to safely reopen businesses. These recommendations have included the Pick It Up Local Campaign and the Project Neighbor Campaign, both instituted in the summer of 2020. o The City also recently developed and issued a survey to small businesses to determine their needs to support fall/winter operations during the pandemic. All of this is in addition, to outreach CDD staff performed in the summer of 2019. This outreach included reaching out to property and businesses owners, as well as business association leadership to gather feedback on potential vacant storefront policies. This included outreach to East Cambridge Business Association, Harvard Square Business Association, Cambridge Local First, All-Business Associations Meeting, as well as including a feature on vacant storefronts in the August 2019 Economic Development E-Newsletter, and meeting with several private property owners. The overall findings were a general agreement that something should be done about ground floor vacant storefronts, that business owners are concerned about safety, sanitation, and general upkeep of properties, and

Page 2 of 2 that there are concerns from both property and business owners over possible fees and fines that could be implemented if a vacant storefront registry was established. The pandemic has exacerbated concerns over vacancies and necessitates the continuation of programs currently in place. Due to these concerns, and a wide variety of reasons for vacancies, as described in the Vacant Storefront Best Practices report, staff recommends creation of a Vacant Storefront City Policy supported by the City Manager that would apply to ground floor vacant storefronts within the City of Cambridge. This would apply to both ground floor storefronts that do not have a current lease with a tenant for at least thirty (30) consecutive days and ground floor storefronts that have been leased but are under construction, or otherwise unoccupied. Staff additionally recommends the policy contain best practices that a property owner should follow. For ground floor vacant storefronts without a lease, or that have otherwise been vacant, the property owner shall: • Put up paper for purposes of covering storefront window(s) that face a public way so that entire window(s) is covered, and post leasing contact information in the storefront window(s) that is visible to a prospective tenant; and/or • Put up art work for purposes of covering storefront window(s) that face a public way so that the entire window(s) is covered and post leasing contact information in the storefront window(s) that is visible to a prospective tenant For ground floor storefronts with a lease, but undergoing renovations, the property owner shall: • Place a “coming soon” sign with information about the new tenant in accordance with the City’s Sign Ordinance, Article 7.000 of the Cambridge Zoning Ordinance. In addition, all ground floor vacant storefronts, regardless of lease status need to comply with additional regulatory requirements per the Cambridge Municipal Code, the Building Code and all other applicable federal, state and local laws, rules and regulations (e.g. snow removal, trash, etc.). This includes: 1. Cambridge Municipal Code Chapter 12.16. Section 12.16.110 – Sidewalks – Requires snow and ice removal;

Page 2 of 2 2. Cambridge Municipal Code Chapter 8.24, Section 8.24.040 – Private property owners and occupants – Requires keeping premises and adjacent areas free of litter; 3. General Laws c.143, §§6-12 – Requires that structures be kept safe and secure; 4. Massachusetts Building Code, which incorporates the International Building Code – Requires that vacant structures must be secured against unauthorized entry; and 5. Massachusetts Comprehensive Fire Safety Code, which incorporates the International Fire Code, Section 110 – Requires that vacant structures must be secured against unauthorized entry.