Strategic Plan & Advisory Group
2023 Strategic Plan
The 2023 Strategic Plan for the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority (CRA) builds upon the organization’s 2014 Strategic Plan to provide an expanded vision of the organization’s potential positive impact for the Cambridge community. When the CRA prepared its 2014 Strategic Plan, it was essentially a “new” organization with a new board, a new executive director, and the opportunity to re-envision its future. At that time, the Board established a mission, operating principles, and priority projects to direct its work over the near and mid-term future. To carry out the work, the plan outlined future staff needs, financial considerations, and how the organization could engage in continuous learning through outreach and other professional development.
The CRA has proactively worked to shape a more equitable and sustainable City over the past nine years, generating ideas for projects, partnering with more organizations, conducting research, influencing policy, participating in streetscape design, retrofitting space for new programs, and implementing parks and building developments. The CRA’s staff capacity, resources, and projects and programs have grown significantly. In 2023, the world looks very different, in part because of the pandemic, but also because Cambridge, its neighborhoods, and its communities continue to change.
Against this backdrop, the CRA has worked with our Strategic Advisory Group (SAG), the City of Cambridge, and other stakeholders and partners to prepare our new Strategic Plan. This updated Strategic Plan offers a chance to reflect on the work to date and the organizational operation, while taking stock of current and future needs in the community and specifying how the CRA intends to work with its many partners to achieve its mission.
CRA Mission
The Cambridge Redevelopment Authority is committed to implementing creative development projects and initiatives that promote social equity and environmental sustainability. As a real estate entity that works in the public interest, we offer distinctive public investment tools and a human dimension to our projects and partnerships throughout the city.
CRA Operating Principles
ACT
Complement the City’s planning role by focusing on implementation using redevelopment tools imaginatively.
OPERATE WITH TRANSPARENCY
Be visible and foster face-to-face relationships and a forum for discussing ideas.
MAXIMIZE PUBLIC BENEFIT
Serve a broad public purpose with ethically sound practices in partnership with the City and others.
OPERATE WITH FISCAL RESPONSIBILITY
Use our independent resources wisely to accomplish our mission.
SET AN EXAMPLE
Through our actions, advance thinking on issues with long-term consequences and within a larger context, be innovative yet with an awareness of history.
SUSTAIN
Support the ongoing health and growth of the organization, supporting staff, improving operations, and stewarding community assets.
whAT IS THE strategic advisory group?
The Strategic Advisory Group helps inform the priorities in the CRA Strategic Plan and guide the Strategic Plan’s implementation. The Group also helps to deepen the CRA’s relationship with the Cambridge community so that our work is equitable, responds to local needs, and reaches a diverse population. The Strategic Advisory Group met approximately six times between Fall 2021 and Fall 2022.
For more information, contact:
Kyle Vangel, Director of Projects and Planning
kvangel@cambridgeredevelopment.org
617-492-6800
255 Main Street, 8th floor, Cambridge, MA 02142