Excavation Permits Since 1-1-2008

Variances and Special Permits with status of under review, approved, denied or withdrawn. Cambridge's Board of Zoning Appeal hears and decides appeals, applications for special permits, and appeals and petitions for variances from the terms of the Cambridge Zoning Ordinance. This dataset includes available records from October 1, 2013 through current. This dataset does not currently include data from a relatively small number of cases with the type "appeal," because these cases are structured differently from the more common variance and special permit type cases.

This dataset has been deprecated and replaced by two new building permit datasets:

Building Permits: Addition/Alteration
https://data.cambridgema.gov/Inspectional-Services/Building-Permits-Addition-Alteration/qu2z-8suj/data

New Building Permits
https://data.cambridgema.gov/Inspectional-Services/New-Building-Permits/9qm7-wbdc/data

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Description for Deprecated Dataset:

Approved building permits for commercial buildings and multifamily homes. The PLANNUMBER column uses "BLDC" to indicate commercial buildings and "BLDM" to indicate multifamily homes. Building permits are issued to licensed construction supervisors and enable recipients to construct, alter, or demolish a structure or install a sign. The building permit must be obtained from Cambridge's Inspectional Services Department before the start of any work and must be prominently posted at the job site. This dataset includes building permits for the construction of renovation of commercial buildings.

List of permits related to the construction or the alteration of existing buildings in Cambridge. These permits cover construction that changes the structure, the footprint, or the volume of the building. This includes decks, porches, and additions, as well any reconstruction, renovation or repair to an existing structure. This dataset derives from Cambridge's ViewPoint permitting system.

Appliance Large Items Permits since April 2018

This dataset contains information on dumpster licenses issued by the City of Cambridge. Dumpster Licenses are required within the City of Cambridge. They are obtained from the Inspectional Services Department. Both permanent and temporary dumpster must be licensed.

The data incorporates information on building permits, certificates of occupancy, lodging houses, and university owned housing, as well as Community Development Department information on the development pipeline. To assure equivalent treatment across the city, all apartment-style graduate student housing operated by local universities is included in the housing and property counts. These figures used here are a snap shot of the housing stock as of June 30, 2022.

List of permits regarding food establishments in Cambridge

This dataset is deprecated and no longer updated. For up to date eating establishment business permit data, please see our new dataset at: https://data.cambridgema.gov/Inspectional-Services/Food-Establishment-Permits/iect-ma2e

This dataset includes every Victualler License attached to a business located in Cambridge, MA. Every business serving food or beverages must have a Victualler License.

Opening and closing times listed in this dataset are listed in UTC time zone (Greenwich Mean Time). UTC time runs five hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time. Moreover, permitted opening and closing times may be broader than actual opening and closing times.

The Development Log provides a record of large-scale development projects occurring in the City of Cambridge. The Log, updated on a quarterly basis, is distributed to City departments and the public to keep them posted about development progress, from permitting through construction to completion. The table includes general project information, such as development status and statistics related to the entire project. The Current Edition table lists all developments found in the last published edition of the Log, whose status range from In permitting to Complete in the then current calendar year. For projects completed in earlier calendar years see https://data.cambridgema.gov/Planning/Development-Log-Historical-Projects-Use-Data/r5mv-isth

Since a project may include more than one use, data on each specific use found within a project is found in the associated Development Log Project Use table. Found here: https://data.cambridgema.gov/Planning/Development-Log-Current-Edition-Project-Use-Data/5nqm-2ns2