======================================================================== CITY 360 CAMBRIDGE — PETITION PREPARATION PACKET Zoning petition — reference material, not a filing ======================================================================== City 360 prepares material. It does not file petitions, does not collect or count signatures, does not verify voter registrations and is not a channel to any City office. Everything on this page is a copy of what an official body has published. You file with that body yourself, and its own requirements are the ones that decide the outcome. Sources last read: 2026-08-15 What this route can change A zoning petition asks the City Council to amend the Cambridge Zoning Ordinance — either the zoning map, which sets district boundaries, or the zoning text, which sets the rules that apply inside a district. Filed with Office of the City Clerk, City of Cambridge Who may file The City Clerk’s Office states that, under state law, the following may file a zoning petition: the City Council; the Board of Zoning Appeal; an individual owning land to be affected by the change or adoption; ten registered voters in the city; the Planning Board; a regional planning agency. Source: Zoning Petitions — City of Cambridge, City Clerk’s Office — https://www.cambridgema.gov/Services/zoningpetitions ======================================================================== Requirements ======================================================================== Form The City Clerk’s Office directs petitioners to the zoning petition form published in the Useful Documents & Resources section of its Zoning Petitions page. Source: Zoning Petitions — City of Cambridge, City Clerk’s Office — https://www.cambridgema.gov/Services/zoningpetitions Filing fee The fee to file a zoning petition is $150.00. Confirm the current fee with the City Clerk’s Office before filing. Source: Zoning Petitions — City of Cambridge, City Clerk’s Office — https://www.cambridgema.gov/Services/zoningpetitions Filing deadline Zoning petitions must be submitted to the City Clerk’s Office by 3:00 p.m. on the Wednesday preceding a City Council meeting. Source: Zoning Petitions — City of Cambridge, City Clerk’s Office — https://www.cambridgema.gov/Services/zoningpetitions Holiday weeks Council Rule 20B provides that during a week in which a legal holiday falls on a Friday, applications and petitions must be presented to the City Clerk by 3:00 p.m. on the Tuesday preceding the regular meeting, and that anything submitted later is held over to the next regular meeting. Source: Rules of the City Council — Cambridge City Council — https://www.cambridgema.gov/Departments/citycouncil/rulesofthecitycouncil Where to file The City Clerk’s Office is at 795 Massachusetts Avenue, 1st Floor, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, telephone 617-349-4260. Source: Zoning Petitions — City of Cambridge, City Clerk’s Office — https://www.cambridgema.gov/Services/zoningpetitions Map amendment A proposed amendment to the zoning map must include a map showing the exact boundaries of the area to be rezoned, together with a written description of what those boundaries are based on, such as street centrelines or lot lines. Source: Zoning FAQ — City of Cambridge, Community Development Department — https://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/zoninganddevelopment/Resources/zoningfaq Text amendment A proposed amendment to the zoning text must show the exact wording of every inserted, deleted and amended section, so that revisions can be located and read against the current ordinance. Source: Zoning FAQ — City of Cambridge, Community Development Department — https://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/zoninganddevelopment/Resources/zoningfaq Before filing The City Clerk’s Office encourages anyone considering a zoning petition to contact the Community Development Department, whose staff can discuss planning issues raised by the petition, who to seek input from, and practices for writing zoning text. Source: Zoning Petitions — City of Cambridge, City Clerk’s Office — https://www.cambridgema.gov/Services/zoningpetitions Checking the signers [MISSING] City Clerk’s Office and Election Commission — how the registration of the ten voters is checked, and what a petition should carry to make that check possible Time to decide [MISSING] M.G.L. c.40A §5 as applied in Cambridge — the period within which the City Council must act on a filed zoning petition, and what happens if it does not. Neither the City Clerk’s zoning-petition page nor the zoning FAQ publishes this figure, and reading it out of the statute here would be legal advice Which votes need six [MISSING] City Clerk’s Office — which categories of zoning petition require the six-vote supermajority rather than the five-vote majority. The zoning FAQ states that both thresholds exist but does not list which petitions fall under each ======================================================================== What happens after filing ======================================================================== 1 · Agenda After a zoning petition has been filed, the City Clerk places it on the agenda of an upcoming City Council meeting. Source: Zoning Petitions — City of Cambridge, City Clerk’s Office — https://www.cambridgema.gov/Services/zoningpetitions 2 · Referral Council Rule 19 records that, under M.G.L. c.40A §5, the City Council submits a proposed zoning ordinance to the Planning Board for review within fourteen days of receiving it. Source: Rules of the City Council — Cambridge City Council — https://www.cambridgema.gov/Departments/citycouncil/rulesofthecitycouncil 3 · Hearings The Council refers the petition to the Planning Board and to the Ordinance Committee, a subcommittee of the City Council. Both bodies hold public hearings and submit reports to the City Council. Source: Zoning Petitions — City of Cambridge, City Clerk’s Office — https://www.cambridgema.gov/Services/zoningpetitions 4 · Vote Only the City Council can amend the Zoning Ordinance. After the public hearings it may vote on the petition, and depending on the type of petition the amendment needs either a simple majority of five votes or a supermajority of six votes to be adopted. Source: Zoning FAQ — City of Cambridge, Community Development Department — https://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/zoninganddevelopment/Resources/zoningfaq ======================================================================== Evidence checklist ======================================================================== [ ] The exact change you are asking for Written as the decision the body would actually take, not as the problem you want solved. A reader should be able to tell whether the petition succeeded. [ ] The body that can grant it Confirm that the office you are filing with has the power to make this change. A petition sent to a body that cannot act produces no result and no explanation. [ ] The area affected Addresses, parcels or district boundaries, stated precisely enough that someone else could draw the same line. [ ] The rule as it stands today Quote the current text or map designation and cite where it is published, so the change you propose can be read against it. [ ] The records behind each claim For every factual statement, the publisher, the document, the date on the document and the date you retrieved it. A claim without a retrievable source is an opinion in the wrong place. [ ] Any number you use, and its method State what was counted, over what period, from which dataset. If a figure is estimated or modelled, say so where it appears rather than in a footnote. [ ] The strongest argument against Stated fairly, with the evidence for it. A petition that does not survive contact with the opposing case will not survive the hearing either. [ ] Signer details in the required form Where a route requires registered voters, collect the details that office asks for. Confirm the format with the office before gathering signatures, not after. [ ] A named contact who will answer One person, reachable by telephone and email, who can respond to questions from staff and from the public between filing and the hearing. [ ] A decision about what becomes public Assume that everything filed may be published, including names and addresses. Tell every signer that before they sign. ======================================================================== Author and sponsor attribution ======================================================================== Author (required) The person or people who wrote the petition text. Full names, as they will appear on the filing. ____________________ Contact person (required) One named person, with street address, telephone number and email, who answers questions about the petition. ____________________ Sponsors (required) Every organisation, group or elected member publicly supporting the petition, named in full. Abbreviations and initials are not attribution. ____________________ Funding and paid help (required) Anyone paid to draft, circulate, advise on or promote the petition, and who paid them. State “none” where that is the answer. ____________________ Property and financial interest (required) Any interest an author or sponsor holds in land, a business or a contract affected by the change being asked for. ____________________ Relationship to the affected area (optional) Resident, owner, tenant, employee, abutter or none of these. Standing is not a requirement everywhere, but stating it is honest. ____________________ ======================================================================== Templates ======================================================================== Zoning text amendment Petitioners Every petitioner, in the form the filing office requires, with the named contact first. ____________________ Sections to be amended Article and section number and title for each part of the Zoning Ordinance you propose to insert, delete or amend. ____________________ Current text The wording as it appears in the ordinance today, quoted exactly. ____________________ Proposed text The wording you propose, exactly as you want it to read, with insertions and deletions marked. ____________________ Intended effect A brief explanation of what the amendment would do in practice, and to whom. ____________________ Evidence Each factual claim with its publisher, document, document date and retrieval date. ____________________ Attribution The attribution block in full. ____________________ Zoning map amendment Petitioners Every petitioner, in the form the filing office requires, with the named contact first. ____________________ Area to be rezoned A map showing the exact boundaries, and a written description of what those boundaries follow. ____________________ Current and proposed designation The base district and any overlay district today, and the designation you propose. ____________________ Intended effect What the change would permit or prevent on the land inside the boundary. ____________________ Evidence Each factual claim with its publisher, document, document date and retrieval date. ____________________ Attribution The attribution block in full. ____________________ ======================================================================== Official pages ======================================================================== Zoning Petitions — City of Cambridge, City Clerk’s Office https://www.cambridgema.gov/Services/zoningpetitions Zoning Petitions Form — City of Cambridge, City Clerk’s Office https://www.cambridgema.gov/publications/Applications/Z/zoningpetitionsform Zoning FAQ — City of Cambridge, Community Development Department https://www.cambridgema.gov/CDD/zoninganddevelopment/Resources/zoningfaq Zoning Amendments — City of Cambridge, Community Development Department https://www.cambridgema.gov/cdd/zoninganddevelopment/zoning/amendments General Laws Chapter 40A, Section 5 — Commonwealth of Massachusetts https://malegislature.gov/Laws/GeneralLaws/PartI/TitleVII/Chapter40A/Section5 ======================================================================== City 360 does not file petitions ======================================================================== City 360 prepares material. It does not file petitions, does not collect or count signatures, does not verify voter registrations and is not a channel to any City office. Everything on this page is a copy of what an official body has published. You file with that body yourself, and its own requirements are the ones that decide the outcome. If a requirement here is out of date, tell us and we will correct it and record the change. Confirm every requirement with the filing office before you file.