City of Cambridge Launches New Housing Development Dashboard

Interactive Tool Provides Centralized and Authoritative View of Housing Activity Citywide

The City of Cambridge is pleased to announce the launch of a new Housing Development Dashboard, an interactive, public-facing tool designed to provide accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date information on housing development across the city. The Dashboard is available at: https://housing-development-dashboard.viz.cambridgema.gov/.

The release of this tool follows the City's historic 2025 zoning reform, which allowed multifamily housing in all residential districts citywide. This policy change was motivated by a clear need to address the housing crisis by promoting the creation of more housing, and ensure Cambridge remains a welcoming, sustainable, and inclusive community. By enabling multifamily housing in all parts of the city, the reform supports both housing goals and those related to climate resilience, walkability, economic opportunity, and equity.

"Residents have told us they want clear, reliable information about how housing is changing in Cambridge," said Cambridge City Manager Yi-An Huang. "The Housing Development Dashboard provides a transparent, trusted source of information by bringing together verified data from across City departments and making it accessible in one place. By including projects at every stage of development, including early-stage proposals that are often difficult to track, we are giving residents a more complete picture of housing activity across our community."

With significant public interest in how this reform is shaping development patterns, the Housing Development Dashboard will serve as the City's definitive source for vetted information and confirmed data.

"When the City Council passed the Multifamily Housing Ordinance, we took a historic step to end exclusionary zoning and open the door to more multifamily housing citywide," said Cambridge Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui. "But passing a policy is only the beginning. We have a responsibility to closely monitor how change unfolds, and to communicate openly with residents who are living with those changes in their neighborhoods every day. The Housing Development Dashboard reflects our commitment to being transparent and data-driven, so that everyone in our community can see what is being built, where, and at what stage."

The Dashboard compiles information on housing projects that:

• Create or remove residential units on a parcel
• Are currently under review or in construction, or
• Have been completed since January 1, 2025

Importantly, the dashboard includes pre-permit projects, which may not be reliably captured by third-party tools. Because the City can integrate multiple internal data sources-including permit applications-the Dashboard provides the most complete picture available of Cambridge housing development.

Some notable features include:

• Detailed project information across all development stages, including pre-permit
• Multiple filtering options to help users explore data by status, location, and more
• Access to authoritative City data consolidated from non-public-facing sources
• An Information tab explaining how to use and interpret the Dashboard

"We heard from our community just how important it is to have a clear picture of housing development across the city," said Assistant City Manager for Community Development Melissa Peters. "We're excited to share this new Dashboard so community members can easily follow changes in their neighborhoods and stay connected to what's taking shape around them. We're eager to hear what residents find most helpful and what questions they still want answered. Their feedback will continue to shape how we refine and expand the Dashboard over time."

The Dashboard is actively evolving, and both its functionality and available information will expand as new capabilities are added. Upcoming enhancements will include direct links to individual permits associated with each project as well as information on opportunities for community input. Users are encouraged to share feedback using the form available in the top navigation bar of the Dashboard.

The Housing Development Dashboard is one of many City resources being developed to support community education around housing production and housing-related policies. These efforts also include the new Neighbors' Guide to Housing Development, an online resource designed to help residents understand how housing projects move through the review and permitting process. In addition, the Community Development Department's Community Engagement Manager will be temporarily acting as the City's Multifamily Housing Community Liaison. Residents who have questions about the multifamily zoning or about development happening in their neighborhood should email [email protected]. Together, these supports aim to make the development process more transparent, accessible, and responsive to the community.