Housing Headlines

GLOUCESTER --- After 11 meetings and over a year of discussions, the planning board has OK'd the $70 million mixed-use redevelopment of the Fuller School, a key step in a development team's bid to redevelop the property with 200 mixed-income apartments, 26,000 square feet of retail and a new Cape Ann YMCA. The developers - Cape Ann YMCA, Windover Development, Sam Park & Company and the Dolben Company - now must get city council's OK for a special permit to develop the site.

WORCESTER --- With the number of chronically homeless estimated to have jumped from 60 to 100 people in the last year, a homeless task force assembled by City Manager Ed Augustus Jr. has released a plan to eliminate homelessness. The plan calls for $4 to $6 million to be invested in housing production and supportive services so that the city can shift away from a shelter system to a "housing first" model. Augustus said the city's homeless population increased from effectively zero in 2011 because "we put a plan in place but didn't have a plan to stay on top of it." He blamed the failure on a lack of affordable one-bedroom apartments, federal stimulus money for homeless prevention which dried up, a shortage in behavioral health staffing due to the opioid crisis, and under-utilized medicaid benefits for housing.

NORTH TRURO --- Two years after the town placed a stop-work order on campground owners for clearing 11 acres to expand sewage collection, company has unveiled plans that call for subdividing 32 acres and constructing 11 homes and 56 duplexes. With the two sides currently in court over the septic issue, Adventure Bound Camping Resorts attorney Don Nagle unveiled the plan at a June planning board meeting.

ORLEANS --- A vacant strip mall of empty offices and the former home of Phoenix Fruit may get new life as a local builder has made an informal presentation to the town's affordable housing committee to build six two-family townhouses and four one-bedroom apartments. Initial plans call for the townhouses to be sold at market rate and the apartments rented at affordable prices. However, committee chair Tom Johnson told the Chronicle that the developer was reconsidering the inclusion of affordable housing.

FALMOUTH --- In an interview with the Falmouth Enterprise, new town planner Thomas Bott said one of the first things he did when he arrived was research how a municipality like Falmouth can qualify for Gov. Charlie Baker's Housing Choice Initiative. "I did some research with the building department and found out that the town couldn’t qualify for that initiative based on the production that we have,” said Bott, whose previous job was in Kingston. “Next year we will look at it again. We’ll have a bit more of a leg up if we have a housing production plan that is current.”

LAWRENCE --- One week after celebrating with Gov. Charlie Baker the grand opening of 55 more apartments at his Riverwalk development in South Lawrence, developer and pizza king Sal Lupoli is making headlines again, this time talking up plans for a 20-story apartment building, 70-room hotel, restaurants and retails stores that he would build on sites he's acquired or needs to acquire between the Merrimack River and his Riverwalk development.