Attack of the Killer Zoning Petitions
There seems to be some kind of campaign afoot to flood the Cambridge City Council with zoning petitions. On the agenda for this coming Monday’s (Aug 1) Midsummer City Council meeting, there is one zoning petition facing a final vote and 7 new zoning petitions. In addition to a resubmittal by Chestnut Hill Realty of its "Workforce Housing" petition to mine their existing properties for additional rent, there are 6 other petitions coming primarily out of North Cambridge with many of the same signers on each of the petitions. Details to follow. They are the Runkel Petition, the Bagedonow Petition, the Bishop Petition, The Teague Petition, the Andrews Petition, and the de Rham Petition. We are definitely going to need scorecards for this.
Since this is the only meeting of the summer (the Council next meets on Sept 12), the agenda features 32 items from the City Manager, 88 Resolutions, 33 City Council Orders, and 8 Committee Reports. Perhaps the most entertaining of the City Council Orders is one from Councillor Cheung calling for a ban on bamboo. Pity the poor pandas. Alas, all this talk about eradicating Black Swallow-wort has now erupted into an all-out campaign against immigrant plants. What kind of Sanctuary City are we?!
More to follow…..