Since early 2022, Agency has provided on-call planning and urban design services to the City of Cambridge Community Development Department. Working on projects in our own backyard, with our community, and on issues we care about is especially grounding, sweet – and challenging! Recent projects include:
Neighborhood Planning Initiative
Agency worked with the City to define an overall brand and standards for the Neighborhood Planning Initiative (NPI) process. Agency led completion of the first three neighborhood action plans: Wellington-Harrington, Mid-Cambridge, and Neighborhood Nine. This included neighborhood-specific research and analysis, an equity-driven approach to NPI priorities, outreach materials, an engagement strategy, and final report design. The Agency team worked closely with graphic designer Michael Tavilla on the development of initiative branding and a graphic identity guide. Additional work has continued to support the City’s ongoing neighborhood engagement and relationship building. More information can be found on the City’s NPI website.
Central Square City Lots Study and Implementation
Agency completed a municipal property needs assessment and planning study for ten city-owned properties in Central Square. This project supports the City to best use its own assets to realize community goals and contribute to city operations. Through focus groups, pop-up engagement, community group conversations, and community meetings, along with an in-depth technical assessment and development test-fits, we developed recommended uses and potential massing for each site. Agency is supporting the City in two key implementation steps: creation of a developer RFI for a key site and facilitating a community process for rezoning of the Central Square area. For more information, click here.
Understanding Citywide Growth and Progress
Agency has helped the City to track and measure progress it is making toward realization of community goals. This includes helping to describe, measure, and visualize progress on goals from the recent Comprehensive Plan, as well as assessing the potential to make future progress through possible policies, actions, and programs.
Central Square Rezoning Community Process
Agency is assisting the City in updating zoning for Central Square through a community-informed process. Central Square is a vital cultural and commercial corridor, serving as the civic heart of Cambridge and hosting many beloved, locally-owned businesses. This project builds on the 2013 K2C2 study, which emphasized how updated zoning could support the area’s growth. Zoning, which governs the shape, density, and use of properties, can support various community goals such as: increasing housing stock and diversity, creating public spaces to foster community, supporting a diverse range of retail, cultural, and non-profit organizations, connecting people to the square, and creating sustainable futures. As place-based experts, the community’s knowledge, experiences, insights, and ideas are critically valuable, ensuring any resulting development aligns with and advances their collective goals and priorities. Through a series of focused conversations, pop-up events, block parties, and targeted community outreach, this process aims to initiate deep, meaningful, and ongoing conversations about the future of Central Square, which will guide future development of the area. For more information about the project and how you can get involved, check out the website, here!
Economic Development Surveying
During the summers of 2022 – 2024, Agency has worked with Cambridge’s Economic Development Division to lead administration of customer intercept surveys in Harvard Square, East Cambridge, and Kendall Square. The goal is to gain a better understanding of what Cambridge residents and customers want in their commercial districts. Data from the surveys is used to develop Commercial District Assessments, as part of the recommendations from the City’s 2017 Retail Strategy Plan.
