Housing Headlines

WILMINGTON --- Wilmington will hold a special town meeting before its May 5 town meeting to vote on whether to exclude multi-family housing from its business and neighborhood mixed-use districts. Special town meeting will also vote on whether it should buy the 75-acre Sciarappa Farm to protect it from development. "Those two articles are going to determine the future of this town," said Selectmen Michael McCoy said. "Number one, in a nutshell, no more condos. People in town do not want to see more condos." McCoy led a citizen's petition to get the special TM in response to a town meeting article that would change the farm's zoning to mixed-use residential. Voters will consider that article as well.

DORCHESTER --- The city's zoning board of appeals has approved developer Adam Sarbaugh's plan to replace the Dorchester Market and Tom English Bar at East Cottage St. and Dorchester Ave. with a mixed-use five-story building that would include 38 apartments (five affordable) and new commercial space for the bar and market.

NEWTON --- Robert Korff of Mark Development has bigger plans than his current project of turning a business block along the Mass Pike into 140 apartments. Korff has begun assembling more parcels and his vision is to remake the entire two-mile stretch that parallels the Mass Turnpike with apartments, bike lanes, parks and cafes.

SALISBURY --- The YWCA of Greater Newburyport took a big step forward recently with the groundbreaking on its plan to turn the former Spaulding School in Salisbury into 42 affordable apartments that will include units for the disabled, homeless, and extremely low-income.

WELLFLEET --- The planning board has an article in this spring's town meeting that would change the minimum land requirement of a once-used cluster development bylaw from 15 acres to 1.38 acres. The board, which OK'd the proposal by a 5-0 vote, said it was designed to create an incentive for developers with a minimum of 30 percent of the dwellings designated as affordable units. The incentive is for each affordable dwelling unit in the development, the developer would be allowed one additional unit above what's permitted.

LAWRENCE --- With school enrollment rising and more of the city's mills due to be revitalized into apartments, acting school Superintendent Mary Lou Bergeron voiced concern about the school system's ability to handle more students. Bergeron said the system has raised the cap on classroom sizes at some grade levels. Lawrence's enrollment is expected to jump to 15,500 by 2019, a 26 percent jump since 2012. Mayor Daniel Rivera, who has pushed for more commercial development in the mills, said he believes that most of the new housing being built in the mills will be rented by people already living in Lawrence, not by outsiders.