If you’ve walked Pearl Street in Cambridgeport lately, you’ll notice something is missing.
From my apartment window across the street, I watched him disappear.
On January 4, Pearl Street Market was demolished. Along with the adjacent parking lot and an existing two-family home (4 William Street), this land will be redeveloped into five single-family homes – three single-family homes and one two-family structure.
Along with existing buildings, Cambridgeport is losing small business, affordable housing and its historic walkable character. Unfortunately, our own zoning laws are to blame for this disappearing act. The current redevelopment corresponds exactly to what our current zoning calls for.
We all love our little neighborhood shops. I’m a regular at Black Sheep Bagel on Magazine Street and Pearl Street Market before it closed. But in “residence C” areas like my neighborhood, bakeries or restaurants are not allowed. Ground floor convenience stores may obtain a special permit from the Board of Zoning Appeals, but only for pre-existing commercial space. Even though convenience stores offer convenience and a sense of community, the developer of Pearl Street Market couldn’t rebuild one even if he wanted to.
Of course, convenience stores are useless if no one can afford to live nearby. Several apartments are being demolished by this project, and the zoning ensures that larger, more expensive homes will be built instead. The assembled lot is 12,000 square feet. For comparison, 464 Green Street, just off Mass Ave., is a handsome older three-story building with 18 units on an 11,000 square foot lot. My own building, 94-104 Pearl, has 22 apartments on 7,500 square feet. Two beautiful residences! However, Residence C’s current zoning has a minimum “lot size per dwelling unit” requirement of 1,800 square feet. By dividing this lot size (12,000) by 1,800, a maximum of six units is allowed on this site. With a lower land size requirement per dwelling unit, projects like this could create more homes, and they would be more affordable.
Finally, our zoning rules across the city require one off-street parking spot for every new unit, which is five in this development. The extra cars add traffic to our pedestrian and transit-accessible neighborhood, and most nearby homes don’t have entrances or off-street parking. Parking mandates open up valuable space, increase our carbon emissions and disrupt the character of Cambridgeport.
Councilor Marc McGovern is hosting a community meeting about the project on Thursday, February 3 from 6-8 p.m. I’ll be there, but the fact is we need to ask the city council to fix our zoning – legalize convenience stores, reduce land area requirements per dwelling unit, end parking mandates – to prevent the Cambridgeport that we like to disappear -Neil Miller, 102 Pearl St.
To attend the community meeting via Zoom: https://bit.ly/3ASxEih
Meeting ID: 869 6729 0249
Access code: 960621