Cambridge Envision Cambridge
Core idea
Corridor infill + housing/equity
Why it matters
Balancing jobs–housing in a tech hub
Description
Envision Cambridge, completed by the City of Cambridge, Massachusetts at the end of the 2010s, is the citywide comprehensive plan for a dense, transit-served city at the heart of the Boston area's university and technology economy. Built on an extensive engagement process, it directs growth to corridors and squares through infill and mixed-use intensification, and couples land-use strategy with explicit commitments on affordable housing, socioeconomic equity, climate action and mobility.
Significance
The plan is a prominent example of equity-framed comprehensive planning in a booming innovation economy, confronting the jobs–housing imbalance and displacement pressures generated by Kendall Square's growth. It fed subsequent Cambridge policies such as citywide affordable-housing overlays, and is cited in United States debates about whether prosperous, high-demand cities can zone for inclusion rather than exclusion.
What shaped it
- The Next American Metropolis / Charter of the New Urbanism (1993 / 1996)
- Transit-oriented development (TOD) (1993)
- The Just City (Fainstein) (2010)
- Inclusionary zoning (from 1971)
Sources
- https://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/News/2019/5/envisioncambridgefinalreport
- https://www.utiledesign.com/work/envision-cambridge-citywide-plan/