Housing Headlines

MARSHFIELD --- While agreeing to lower the heights of all six buildings, Mill Creek Residential seems to be at an impasse with the Marshfield Zoning Boards of Appeals as its new plans still call for 270 units while the ZBA would like to see the project cut to 168 units. “We continue to be willing to work with the board, but we don’t accept the premise of 168 units being the basis of a continuation,” said Debbie Horwitz, lawyer for the developer.

GLOUCESTER --- In what's being described as the city's continuing commitment to find ways to add more affordable housing, the Gloucester City Council has passed a new bylaw that it hopes will encourage landlords who own houses with unlicensed apartments to come forward and register them without penalty, if they are willing to set aside some of the units as affordable.

NORTH ANDOVER --- The nonprofit Bread and Roses is continuing its work with communities to create affordable homeownership opportunities, this time once again with North Andover as the town's housing trust has put up $310,000 for the purchase of a home that will be sold to a first-time buyer.

BROCKTON --- The Planning Office for Urban Affairs' bid to transform a convent next to Massasoit Community College into 175 apartments is running into some headwinds as some city councilors who will vote on whether to rezone the site are voicing concerns that the number of units may strain the municipal budget and overwhelm the neighborhood, which is east of the city.

Saying that a 20-unit housing proposal with five affordable units sent some residents into "paroxysms of panic," a Cape Cod Times editorial criticized residents who questioned at a public meeting whether the housing would bring in people who use drugs and own pit bulls, saying the incident "revealed an enormous amount of misguided fear and confusion as to the nature of affordable housing (and) the people who need it."

HUDSON --- With its supply of affordable housing at 11.3 percent, the Town of Hudson is looking for ways to keep it that way when the 2020 census rolls around and has formed a committee that will study whether it is feasible to turn the former police headquarters into affordable housing. Keeping its supply of affordable housing over 10 percent will give the town greater control over developers proposing to build apartments with a Ch. 40B comprehensive land-use permit, which allows developers to build more densely in places that aren't zoned for multifamily and where the supply of affordable housing is below 10 percent.