Housing Headlines

BOSTON --- The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court has denied a request by Thomas Walsh for further appellate review of his case against the town of Dennis and the Dennis Planning Board, which in September 2016 granted a special permit for the five-bedroom home in accordance with a local affordable housing zoning bylaw. Lawyer Wayne Bergeron, a former Dennis selectman who continues to represent the project, credited the outcome of the case to the persistence of the Board of Selectmen and project volunteers.

NEWTON --- Mark Development's plan to include an 18-story mixed-use building in its 675-unit proposal at the Riverside MBTA station and an adjoining site has been called a non-starter by Councilor-at-Large Leonard Gentile. Meanwhile, members of the Lower Falls Improvement Association countered with their own zoning suggestions, saying buildings along Route 128 could be a maximum 10 to 11 stories high, with buildings along the local Grove Street road no more than four stories.

QUINCY --- The City Council has struck a deal with FoxRock Properties that clears the way for the developer to build a mixed-use project with 110 affordable apartments near downtown while paying the city $4.25 million to relinquish its ownership rights to the now defunct Quincy Medical Center property, an agreement the city put in place should the property cease to be used for medical purposes. FoxRock has proposed to build 490 units on the hospital site, a plan that residents say is too big for the neighborhood.

In reaction to the National Low Income Housing Coalition's annual report that found that the wage needed to afford the average two-bedroom apartment in Massachusetts is $33, CEO Rachel Heller of the Citizens Housing and Planning Association said, "“Despite recently raising our state minimum wage, it is less than half of what is needed to afford a modest apartment in Massachusetts,” said Heller. “Compared with the rest of the United States, we are the third least affordable state for renters.”

NATICK --- In a wide-ranging address to the MetroWest Chamber of Commerce, Gov. Charlie Baker continued to list housing production as one of his administration's top priorities, urging passage of his Housing Choice legislation as a step that's needed to spur housing growth and help the state reach the goal Baker has set of producing 135,000 new units by 2025. “Basically, what we are trying to do is get back into the business of doing housing production in Massachusetts,” Baker said. “We used to build 30,000 units of housing every single year for 50 years, until the ’90s. Then that number fell to around 8,000 to 10,000 units a year.”

AMHERST --- In a strongly-worded editorial, the Hampshire Gazette criticizes a group of about 50 residents for trying to slow the approval process for 28 low-income individuals making between $18,000 and $49,000 per year. The editorial focused on a phrase in a letter from residents in which residents insist they are not saying "not in our backyard." The editorial states "that's exactly what these residents are saying." It then points to "common NIMBY" arguments the residents are using to try to reduce the size of the project.