Housing Headlines

TRURO --- The Truro Board of Health has asked Truro Motor Inn owner Daniel DelGrizzi to attend a public hearing next month to explain why his Route 6 property should not be vacated due to his failure to make improvements to his property. If the property is shut down, at least 36 year-round tenants would face eviction. Positioned as a short-term respite for vacationers, longtime Cape Cod Times reporter Mary Ann Bragg wrote that the motel "appears to be a de facto year-round affordable housing apartment complex" that faces closure "because of illegal quarters for habitation, fire hazards and a lapse in licensing."

BRAINTREE -- Debate continued on a bid by the Holland Companies to obtain a Ch. 40B comprehensive land use permit so it can build 70 mixed-income apartments and eight town-house condominiums on a two-acre lot behind Washington Street storefronts in Braintree Square. According to the Patriot Ledger, the focus of the most recent zoning board of appeals meeting was traffic, with residents saying the 148 parking spaces in the new building would lead to more traffic that would spill over into nearby neighborhoods. Countering those concerns was Shaun Kelly, a traffic engineer. He said the development wouldn’t have a “major impact” on traffic, adding 454 daily vehicle trips. Kelley said 16,000 vehicles a day use Washington Street and 2,000 use Storrs Avenue on the northern end of the property. Another study will be done in October.

AMHERST --- With an increase of students living off campus and a drop in families living in town, the Amherst Affordable Housing Trust is urging the Town Council to support a policy calling for the creation of 250 housing units over the next five to 10 years. In making the case trust chair John Hornik said UMass students living off campus has increased by 4,000 since 2000 and the number of children in the Amherst schools have dropped by 1,000 over a similar period.

FALMOUTH --- The company charged with marketing and selling two affordable condominiums in an eight-unit cluster of condominiums is surprised that, as of Sept. 19, no one had applied. While market rate condos in the complex will sell for overf $700,000 each, the affordable condos — three bedrooms, two bathrooms — are priced at $232,584 and carry a monthly condo fee of $157. Income limits are capped at 80 percent of the area’s median income, which is $51,250 for single-member households, $58,600 for two-member households, $65,900 for three-member households, and $73,200 for four-member households. The applicant may have no more than $75,000 in assets.

MARBLEHEAD --- Local developer Ted Moore's plans to build 48 condominiums - 12 of them affordable - moved closer to approval recently as the Zoning Board of Appeals resolved several issues and seems poised to OK a Ch. 40B comprehensive permit at its next meeting. Marblehead currently has 333 units of subsidized housing, or about 3.9 percent of all housing in town.

STOUGHTON --- The redevelopment of a downtown property into 14 apartments has hit a snag with the recent discovery that the planning board's approval of parking for the new building's first floor does not conform with zoning for the special downtown overlay district.