Housing Headlines

LEE --- Special town meeting representatives voted 30-4 to approve a Smart Growth Overlay District that will position nine shuttered Eagle Mill paper-making factory buildings on a 6.2 acre site to be redeveloped into a mixed-use development with mixed-income housing, commercial and retail space. The bylaw does not address any specific project although discussion at the meeting centered on the broad outlines of developer Jeffrey Cohen's $70 million plan for the property.

BOSTON --- The development company Nordblom filed plans for the old Boston Globe plant last week, proposing to turn the 700,000 square foot building on Morrissey Boulevard in the Savin Hill neighborhood into multi-tenant innovation park that could employ up to 2,000 to 3,000 people - as many as once worked at the facility during the newspaper's hey day. The plan does not include housing, which goes against a 2011 master plan for the area that envisioned a number of apartment buildings on the site.

The North Middlesex North Registry of Deeds annual report that only two communities in its region have yet to see property sale values fully recover from the real estate crash.

DORCHESTER --- Developer Hiep Chu is proposing to the Boston Planning and Development Agency a plan to replace a single-family house near the Four Corners/Geneva stop on the Fairmount line with an $8.9 million, four-story 27-unit apartment building with 23 market-rate and four affordable apartments.

BOSTON --- In a plan similar to approaches taken in other cities, the administration of Mayor Marty Walsh and specifically its Housing Innovation Lab have put forth a Housing with Public Assets plan and is seeking requests for interest from developers on redeveloping 83 city-owned buildings with housing and improvements to the facilities. New York, Washington and San Francisco have taken similar approaches, working with developers to build on the sites of libraries and community centers. Specific city-owned properties mentioned include older branch libraries, the Inspectional Services Division bulding at 1010 Mass. Ave., the Curley Community Center in South Boston and the Boston Fire Academy on Moon Island.

NEWBURYPORT --- Acting on voter comments about the need for affordable housing while running for re-election, Mayor Donna Holaday is behind a push to issue a second request for proposals to convert the former Brown School into affordable housing. More than 150 residents turned out recently to discuss the idea, with at least a dozen saying the city needs more affordable housing.