Housing Headlines

WILLIAMSTOWN --- As part of its effort to review zoning to permit housing that would help reverse population declines and bring more people to the community, its downtown and its schools, the planning board is considering allowing existing property owners to add small apartments to single-family homes, within the same structure or through an addition.

STOUGHTON --- Ten years after a fire destroyed a downtown restaurant leaving a crater that exists to this day, the Planning Board has approved a plan to allow Connelly Management Company to redevelop the property into a 14-unit mixed-use development near the commuter rail.

FRAMINGHAM --- Zoning changes designed to re-inject some life into Framingham villages and the strip malls that have seen better times entered its next phase, with the Planning Board weighing in on the plans, which include encouraging mixed-use development, setting common design standards and fostering more lively public spaces in villages such as Nobscot. During the review, former planning board member Sue Bernstein voiced caution: “As I look at this zoning, to me, a lot of it is appropriate for Rte. 9, but not for Nobscot,” she said, “and I don’t know if people who have moved to the Nobscot area did so with the idea that they were going to see a very commercial district.”

PEMBROKE --- One selectman is promising a long fight over the long-debated 56-unit River Marsh housing proposal that has been in the works since 2005 and is now moving forward thanks to a court decision that the property is now "buildable" even though 30 of the 50 acres along the North River are considered wetlands. “The River Marsh people are in for a long battle,” said Selectman Arthur Boyle. “It was a lot that was unsatisfactory and un-buildable in 2005 and now all of a sudden the courts have decided that it is OK?"

SAUGUS --- Local builder Joseph Boccelli of Central Contractors is proposing to redevelop the historic Scott Mill site into 34 apartments, which if approved would be the first development built in the town's historic mixed-use overlay district approved by Town Meeting in 2014.

MELROSE --- Melrose is discussing changes to its affordable housing bylaws that would increase the amount of required affordable units from 10 to 15 percent for developments of eight units or more and eliminate the payment-in-lieu of option for developments of this size. In addition, town leaders are discussing changing the payment-in-lieu of affordable units from optional to by-right for developments of five to seven units, and increasing the payment requirement from 2 to 3 percent of sale price or market value.