Housing Headlines

MEDFIELD --- The state has given the go-ahead to a town-supported housing proposal that will bring 16 units to North Meadows Road. The project will be built by Matt Borelli and Needham Investment Company. This is the third so-called "friendly" affordable housing development the town has supported recently. the others being eight units by Borelli on North St. and another devdelopment at 67 North St. This flurry of development activity is enough to give Medfield "safe harbor" from Ch. 40B developments for the next year.

There's no shortage of stories that the housing market is tight. In the latest chapter, the Globe reports on the struggle people are having to find homes south of Boston. The story includes a family that had to pay more than it wanted to buy in Duxbury, a couple that wanted to be near Boston but settled for Brockton, and a warning from the South Shore Chamber's Peter Forman: "We do have a risk of stagnating. The best way to do that is to fall behind housing production, or to keep building either age-restricted, 55-plus communities or big houses no young people can afford.”

WILLIAMSTOWN --- Residents aren't happy with a new zoning map, saying that the proposal to move from one general zone to four districts with different density requirements is inequitable in that it opens the door for some neighborhoods to shoulder more of the town's housing needs than others.

BELMONT --- After a decade of attempts to get permitting and financing, the Bradford Development in Cushins Square has finally received a building permit from the planning board, allowing Toll Brothers to proceed with developing the site into 112 apartments and 38,000 square feet of retail space. Smith Legacy Partners was the original developer, finally getting a special permit on its third try in 2013. But the developer was unable to get financing and sold it to Toll Brothers in 2016 for about $14 million.

BOSTON --- A group called 288 Tremont Street Partners has submitted a plan to turn a city-owned Chinatown parking lot into 171 mixed-income apartments, with 45 units affordable below 60 percent of area median income and the rest between 70 and 100 percent of area median income. The group includes Asian Community Development Corporation (ACDC); DoubleTree Hotel owner Corcoran Jennison; Tufts University’s Medical School; and Millennium Partners.

FALL RIVER --- There is no shortage of testimony to the sense that there's an appetite for market-rate housing in Fall River, with Starr Development encouraged by the fact that 20 of their 101 Cornell Mill Lofts apartments have rented one month after coming on the market. This news comes on the heels of the 101-unit Commonwealth Landing, which filled up two months after it opened. In the pipeline is one more market rate development as Alan Macomber, one of the Commonwealth Landing developers, wants to turn the former Durfee Tech building into 47 market-rate apartments. Rents at Cornell range from $1,270 to $1,795 a month, with an average rent of $1,400.