Days after the Cambridge City Council voted to eliminate public review of alternative Cambridge Harbor proposals, the city government issued a press release standing by the decision.
At the same time, Ward 1 Commissioner Brett Summers said he has sent an email to the council and City Manager Glenn Steckman proposing that the council revisit the issue.
Summers’ proposed language for the city’s contract with Cambridge Waterfront Development Incorporated calls for any written offer and development plan to be released for public review.
He said he hopes the council will take up his changes at the July 27 council meeting.
In an email statement to the media, CWDI president Angie Hengst said, “Rather than limiting opportunities for public input, the amended process preserves them while providing CWDI with greater flexibility to attract the strongest possible development partners.”
She noted that the council added time for what she called “advance notice” of a review period.
Hengst said CWDI wanted to attract high-quality development plans while “ensuring the public has meaningful opportunities to review and comment on actual development proposals rather than hypothetical concepts.”
She did not clarify if all development plans would be offered for public review, or if those not selected by CWDI would be considered “hypothetical concepts.”
Many people expressed dismay and opposition after the council on Monday limited the public right of review to only the plans that CWDI chooses for Cambridge Harbor – not all submissions, as had been allowed under the original agreement.
“I’m disappointed that the city passed it, because we need more transparency, not less transparency.”
That’s Chuck McFadden, president of CAN, Cambridge Association of Neighborhoods
“I’m not convinced that what CWDI is doing is in the best interest of the city. It’s what they think is, but they don’t have any public input, or they look down on public input because we don’t know what we’re doing because we aren’t architects.”
Former city officials who put forth that agreement in 2021 said the council’s action Monday eroded public trust. Laurel Atkiss was a city council member at the time of the original agreement.
“Disregarding a lot of positive things that come through, I believe that the public still has the right, and CWDI still has the responsibility, to be transparent and open to the public. If they’re going to continue to use public funds to do what they want to do, they have a responsibility to be transparent.”
Former council member Jamison Harrington said he’s skeptical about some council members when it comes to CWDI.
“That’s not surprising because I think the public really wasn’t aware these changes were happening. I’ve pointed this out before, but at least a couple of council members are loyal to CWDI, not the people who elected them.”
The city issued a press release Thursday, stating that council members decided to eliminate complete public review because they wanted to protect the intellectual property and ”creations” of bidders who were not chosen by CWDI. However, no such discussion took place during the council meeting.
City spokeswoman Talibah Chikwendu said some council members came to that position after the meeting.
Summers dismissed the press release claims that any developer needed to be shielded from the public. He said he believes it will raise public interest and show progress if residents can view the various proposals submitted.
Mayor Lajan Cephas Bey said she understood that some people were upset by the council’s initial action Monday that limited public review. But she’s standing by the new policy.
"I think controversy – that’s just a matter of perspective,” Bey said. “There are some who were actually okay with what was passed...they understand that we went from an RFP process to now we’re working with brokers.
“I just think our priority at this moment is to move the development forward. We have to move it forward,” she said.
“You know, we trust CWDI as being stewards on behalf of the city of Cambridge so we can get the politics out of it. However, we have people who worked in politics prior and they’re still making this political.”
The mayor said she thinks most people will understand why the council agreed to go along with CWDI.
"At some point, we have to trust (CWDI), right? In years past, we’ve had challenges with CWDI, you know, different personalities, and we questioned the intentions of many. But from my perspective today, we don’t have that today. I think we have folks on this board serving free of charge, and they sincerely just want to move this project forward.”