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_UPDATED MAY 7, 2025, AT 1:01 A.M._ When the Cambridge City Council voted to abolish single-family zoning last month, the move was widely celebrated as historic. By upzoning the city,

political leaders and activists declared that the new housing to come would ease pressure on the city’s desperately strained supply — and ultimately lower the cost of housing. But a local

developer’s decision to mail 1500 postcards to residents across Cambridge urging them to consider selling their homes, so a taller, higher-value one can be built seems to have given the

policy’s vocal group of critics — who warned that the ordinance would be a bonanza for private developers — a small “I-told-you-so” moment. “Many of us received a card today, basically

urging us to sell to investors, because our property now is worth so much more.” Suzanne P. Blier, Harvard professor and president of the Cambridge Citizens Coalition, said in public comment

in a City Council meeting on March 3. “The horse is clearly out of the barn,” Blier said of luxury development driven by the city’s upzoning. “Frankly, many of us had told you that this

would happen.” The CCC opposed the passage of the multifamily ordinance, arguing that it would bring gentrification, environmental damage, and the destruction of existing single family

homes. The ordinance is just a month old, and none of those predictions yet have come to bear. And the vast majority of housing experts agree, contrary to the CCC’s claims, that encouraging

development can reduce housing costs by adding to the pinched supply — though many say zoning changes alone are not enough to solve housing crises. But the postcards, which led a few

constituents to complain to their councilors about developers “diving for the kill,” also showed how that process of increasing housing may not be an entirely smooth one. Some recipients of

the postcards said they were put off by developers newly eyeing their homes to turn a profit. Councilor Patty M. Nolan ’80 also raised the issue in a recent city council meeting.

Advertisement The postcards were sent by Peak Realty Advisors – previously called “Wealthy Development” — whose founder Tyler P. Munroe has done the same in other areas of Boston. “Are you

aware of the new zoning changes to ALL single family properties?” the postcard reads. “Buildings up to 6 stories can now be built on your lot. Your property could be valued higher than it

ever has been!” Munroe said he had received almost exclusively negative responses to the operation. “I send a lot of these mailings, that's usually like 90 percent of my responses,” he

said.“I think it's just because this is new and people are just starting to take it in.” Josu’e Velney, CEO of another development firm in the area, said that he expected property

values to be 20 to 30 percent higher after the ordinance, representing an increase by potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars. While Cambridge has long been an attractive market for

real estate, the recent city-wide upzoning has turned it into “a really hot place to be working right now,” Munroe said. David Sullivan was one such recipient of Peak Realty’s postcard. When

asked whether Peak’s message persuaded him to sell said “No, absolutely not.” “I’ve lived in Cambridge for fifty years — fifty five years now — and my wife and I have no desire to sell,” he

added. Still, local real estate experts expect new developments to come soon, especially on lots already held by developers. Market-rate housing may come online as soon as six months to a

year from now, Veleny said. Carl D. Nagy-Koechlin, Executive Director of Just A Start, a developer of fully affordable housing in Cambridge, cautioned that while affordable housing would

also come, it will take longer to materialize. Advertisement Nagy-Koechlin said that from beginning to end, affordable housing projects “definitely can take four years or more.” If the

ordinance succeeds as it’s intended, Cambridge residents will eventually see the new market-rate housing, and the affordable units trailing behind it, put a dent in the city’s sky-high

housing costs. Nagy-Koechlin, like other affordable housing advocates, was optimistic about the ordinance’s potential over the coming years. “The more housing we can get particularly in

Cambridge, which is such a community of great opportunity and great resources, the better off we are,” he said. —Staff writer Diego García Moreno can be reached at

[email protected]. —Staff writer Summer E. Rose can be reached at [email protected].