As chair of the City Council’s Economic Development & University Relations Committee this term, I have focused on the challenges facing local retail merchants and business districts. My committee has held three hearings with the City’s retail strategy consultant to discuss new policies to help our small business community adapt to changes in the retail ecosystem. I recently wrote a guest column for the Cambridge Chronicle that describes some of the policies we are considering. Read my column online.

Earlier this week I met with Jeremy Spindler, proprietor of Spindler Confections, a relatively new small business on Mass Ave in North Cambridge. Jeremy explained some of the regulatory and zoning hurdles he faced as he launched his candy-making business, which he had incubated his home kitchen in Somerville. For instance Cambridge’s current zoning does not permit a residential kitchen to be used for commercial cooking; this is a restriction we could consider relaxing to help residents incubate artisanal food businesses (products that don’t need refrigeration). In addition he had to get a special permit to operate a “manufacturing” business in a commercial zone, which delayed his store opening by several months. Our zoning Table of Uses needs to be updated to reflect that an activity like small-batch candy-making is a low impact form of “manufacturing” compared to say, making rubber hoses or automobile parts, which was the type of factory manufacturing the zoning was originally drafted to address. Jeremy stressed that our Economic Development staff have been very supportive of his business and praised the City’s Storefront Improvement Grant Program for having helped him make his storefront more attractive and accessible.

Today I am meeting with the business owners on Huron and Concord Avenues to discuss ways the City can help support their neighborhood business districts during (and after) the prolonged street construction. I look forward to listening to their concerns and brainstorming marketing and policy strategies with them.