Community Development Department Leadership Update

After 25 years of dedicated service to the City of Cambridge, Iram Farooq, Assistant City Manager of Community Development, is leaving the City to become the Managing Director of Campus Planning at Harvard University.  

Farooq has been a key leader and voice in so much of the incredible growth, development, and transformation in Cambridge since joining the City in 1999. She shaped the creation of Kendall Square, Cambridge Crossing, and Alewife, where we now see vibrant mixed-use communities and thousands of new homes. She has been a leader of Cambridge’s climate work on green buildings and green zoning, the development of the Net Zero Action Plan, the passage of BEUDO 1.0 in 2015 and 2.0 in 2023, and creation of our Resilient Cambridge roadmap. She guided the creation of the Affordable Housing Overlay 1.0 and 2.0, and she is now coordinating the policy development of Multi-Family Housing. Farooq has also overseen the City’s investments in small businesses, recent work on Supplier Diversity, planning for our transportation future, reimagining our open spaces, and much more.  

Her last day in the office will be January 24.  

Melissa Peters, Chief of Planning Strategy, will serve as Acting Assistant City Manager of Community Development while the City conducts a search in the new year. Peters has been with the City for the last ten years and has led some of our largest planning initiatives including Envision Cambridge and the re-zoning of the Alewife Quadrangle.