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2025-12-22 - City Council Regular Meeting

Summary

Built from the official record, which for this meeting is a full certified transcript of proceedings (transcribed April 6, 2026; adopted by the City Council April 13, 2026 by eight members). This is an older meeting, from December 2025, the last of the 2024-2025 term; the portal lists no council meetings after April 6, 2026. No video link was in the record we have; the Clerk's notes say 22-CityView carries the Council meetings. Speakers' home addresses are left out.

  • Monday, December 22, 2025, 5:30 to about 9:50 PM, the final session of the term. Vice Mayor McGovern chaired because Mayor Simmons was out of town; she joined by Zoom (roll table 6:00 PM) and Wilson attended remotely (roll table 6:11 PM). Paul Toner answered present shortly after the first roll call.
  • 62 people signed up for public comment, two minutes each; about fifty were heard, most on the two corridor zoning petitions, plus the sewer overflow plan and the Alewife paths.
  • North Massachusetts Avenue zoning petition ordained, 6-3 (in favor: Azeem, McGovern, Siddiqui, Sobrinho-Wheeler, Toner, Simmons; against: Nolan, Wilson, Zusy). A policy order to cut the maximum height from 12 to 11 stories failed 4-5. See North Massachusetts Avenue Rezoning.
  • Cambridge Street zoning petition not voted: placed back on the table and carried to the next Council, 7-2 (Toner and Simmons against). See Cambridge Street Rezoning.
  • An agenda error (the Cambridge Street text was posted in place of the amended Mass Ave text) forced the Council to reconsider and re-vote the Mass Ave ordinance late in the evening; see below.
  • Reports placed on file, all 9-0: the 18th and last federal update (HUD Continuum of Care Lawsuit), the Alewife paths report (Alewife Paths Safety Response) and the combined sewer overflow report (Charles River Sewer Overflow Plan).
  • A $1,172,577 state grant appropriation for Fire Department equipment and PFAS-free gear passed 9-0.
  • Two policy orders were held over by Simmons's charter right to the next regular meeting (Parking Permit Limits Near New Development).
  • Outgoing Councillor Toner gave farewell remarks at his last meeting; Wilson also left the Council at the end of the term.
  • Adjourned 9-0 on a motion by Nolan; the Council returned for the January 5 inauguration (2026-01-05 - City Council Inaugural Meeting).

Public comment

  • Quorum and rules: seven present at the start, two absent; two-minute limit because of 62 sign-ups. Comment on communications and awaiting reports is not allowed, everything else on the agenda is.
  • Mass Ave and Cambridge Street zoning: speakers split. Those urging passage (many asked to keep Mass Ave at 12 stories rather than 11) cited the housing shortage and lowest permitting since 2009 (62 net new homes in 2025, per one speaker), long commutes, transit access, a CDD estimate of 680 additional affordable homes by 2040 (cited by one speaker), and the case for acting rather than another delay. Those urging the petitions expire, or a no vote so the new Council could refile, cited process (the "sham" charge about the Mass Ave Planning Study, or MAPS), lack of design review, Inman Square heights (cut from 10 to 8 stories the week before, but six was the Cambridge Street study figure), small business displacement, solar shading, fire ladder reach, sidewalk snow and ice, accessibility, parking, and risk to the inclusionary program from a pending lawsuit.
  • Named speakers on zoning: Lee Farris (Cambridge Residents Alliance) asked that the petitions expire and, if any zoning passes, that the density bonus start at four floors, no building over six floors be as of right, and the Planning Board be able to hold development review for buildings over 70 feet; Mary Jane Kornacki and Nahid Trivedi, both MAPS participants, took opposite sides on whether the Council had honored MAPS; Louise Venden urged expiry; Heather Hoffman said the law department held that restricting parking permits for some residents is illegal and that zoning changes lacked analysis.
  • Sewer overflow: Anas El-Turabi and Michael Siegel (neighbors of the 135 Sherman Street site) and Emily Norton (Charles River Watershed Association) spoke; see Charles River Sewer Overflow Plan.
  • Alewife: Joel Nogic asked that the item not be treated as resolved; see Alewife Paths Safety Response.
  • Public comment closed on a motion by Nolan, 8 in favor with Mayor Simmons temporarily absent.

City Manager's agenda

  • Item 3 adopted 8-0 (Simmons temporarily absent); items 1, 2, 4 and 5 were pulled for discussion, 6 and 7 for housekeeping.
  • Item 1, federal update: City Manager Huang gave the 18th and last federal update of 2025. See HUD Continuum of Care Lawsuit. Placed on file 9-0.
  • Item 2, $1,172,577 grant appropriation to the grant fund fire extraordinary expenditures account, pulled by Zusy. Chief Thomas Cahill said the state grant was larger than expected, most of it will outfit the whole department with PFAS-free protective gear, and the rest updates metering and detection devices. Zusy wished the item had said it was a grant. Passed 9-0.
  • Item 4, Alewife paths (awaiting report 25-61), pulled by Nolan: Alewife Paths Safety Response. Placed on file 9-0.
  • Item 5, combined sewer overflows, pulled by Nolan: Charles River Sewer Overflow Plan. Placed on file 9-0.
  • Items 6 and 7, the revised Mass Ave and Cambridge Street zoning petitions: see the two sections below.

North Massachusetts Avenue Rezoning

  • McGovern explained the calendar: the Council could vote tonight, or let the petition carry into the new term; both petitions expire about January 28; there was no meeting January 5 (inauguration) or 19 (Martin Luther King Day), so January 26 would be the last chance.
  • Suspension of the rules to bring forward unfinished business (ordinance 2025 No. 16) and Charter Right 1, and to amend the petition by substitution with the current language: 9-0 each.
  • Charter Right 1 (the policy order to cut the Mass-12 district from 12 stories to 11, with ground-floor active use, consistent with MAPS), roll call: yes Nolan (lead sponsor), Siddiqui, Wilson, Zusy and Simmons; no Azeem, McGovern, Sobrinho-Wheeler, Toner. Simmons then asked for unanimous consent to change her vote to no, saying she had been unsure what was being voted on; the order failed 4-5.
  • Debate: Azeem, McGovern and Sobrinho-Wheeler argued against the cut (Toner, who sponsored the original citizens' advisory group order, also voted no); Assistant City Manager Melissa Peters said CDD "strongly" recommends 12 and Huang agreed; Nolan, Siddiqui, Wilson and Zusy argued for 11 as faithful to MAPS. Zusy argued against the petition itself; Wilson said she was not convinced it would deliver affordability.
  • Ordain (as amended by substitution), moved by Toner: 6-3. Reconsideration then failed 0-9.
  • Late in the evening City Solicitor Megan Bayer explained a mistake: only an extra copy of the Cambridge Street petition had been posted with the agenda, so the first substitution vote could be read as replacing the Mass Ave petition with the wrong text. The Council suspended its rules and reconsidered (9-0, hoping to prevail), then Jeff Roberts explained the one correction (a reference in section 17.803.2(c) should read 17.805, not 17.705). Amend by substitution: 9-0. Ordain as amended: 6-3 (same alignment). Suspension to reconsider 9-0; reconsideration failed 0-9, making the vote final.
  • Item 6 placed on file 9-0.

Cambridge Street Rezoning

  • Suspension to bring forward unfinished business (ordinance 2025 No. 17): 9-0.
  • Sobrinho-Wheeler asked to hold the petition to allow CDD to address outstanding issues (including ground-floor retail protection), since it did not expire until the end of January. Toner preferred to vote that night. A motion by Sobrinho-Wheeler to place it back on the table, to be forwarded to the next Council, passed 7-2 (Toner and Simmons no). Item 7 placed on file 9-0.

Parking Permit Limits Near New Development

  • Two policy orders were on the agenda; Mayor Simmons exercised the Charter Right on both, carrying them to the first regular meeting of the new term (per Solicitor Bayer, by operation of state law, without a separate vote).

Other business

  • Applications and petitions adopted 9-0; 59 communications placed on file 9-0.
  • Resolution 12 adopted 9-0 (Toner pulled it to add Wilson as a co-sponsor, 9-0).
  • Awaiting reports on the City Clerk's list (COF 2025 No. 154) forwarded to the next Council and placed on file, 9-0. Zusy noted that awaiting report 25-67 (Simmons's order on the consistency of meeting information on the city website) was missing from the list; the Vice Mayor advised refiling it in the new year.
  • Late resolution sponsored by Simmons honoring a Cambridge attorney on 25 years of legal practice and admission to the bar of the U.S. Supreme Court: adopted 9-0 after suspension of the rules.
  • Announcements: Toner thanked family, staff and constituents; Simmons paid tribute to his service. Adjourned about 9:50 PM, 9-0.

Sources