This collection contains reports, booklets, correspondence, ephemera, and other documents pertaining to city planning and development in Cambridge. Most of the documents were created by City of Cambridge departments such as Cambridge Community Development (CDD) and the Cambridge Planning Board (including when it was the Planning Department), though other departments and city organizations like the Cambridge Housing Authority or Water Board may appear as creators as well. Some documents related to planning and development, such as RFPs or plans, may have been created by outside private agencies for CDD, or were created entirely by or for other city governments.

The documents cover topics such as zoning, urban renewal, post-war Cambridge and the “City Plan” of 1958 and 1966 (never fully published), population and housing, planning and district studies for various Cambridge neighborhoods including Central Square, East Cambridge, and Harvard Square, transportation – roads and the MBTA, Fresh Pond Master Plan, parks, adaptive reuse of areas including the former City Dump (now Danehy Park), social characteristics of Cambridge, environmental plans, and other city planning projects and reports. The collection also contains a few project folders created by CDD Staff in the 1980s. Most of the documents cover the period between 1970 and 1990.