Housing Headlines

WORCESTER --- The development company that is already constructing 370 units of market rate housing within CitySquare has now put in a proposal to raze the Notre Dame des Canadiens Church and and replace it with a mixed-use development featuring 84 apartments and over 2,000 square feet of retail space.

BOSTON --- The fifth neighborhood informational meeting to brief and hear from residents about plans to redevelop a Mattapan Square MBTA parking lost into a mixed-use, mixed-income development with 135 units was consumed totally with a discussion about how affordable the project would be, causing a sixth meeting to be scheduled in August to go over the design of the building. Nuestra Comunidad Executive Director David Price, whose organization is co-developing the site with the Preservation of Affordable Housing, said the goal of the project is to set as many of the rents as possible at 50 percent of median income, which in Boston is $51,700 for a family of four.

WORCESTER --- Developer Allen Fletcher's plan to turn a 1.3 acre site in Worcester's busy Kelley Square into a mixed-use development with ground floor commercial space and 48 upper-floor market rate apartments may get a significant local boost as City Manager Edward M. Augustus is recommending a tax break that could save the developer over $800,000.

Boston Globe correspondent Jill Terreri Ramos takes a look at how towns south of Boston are grappling with the state law known as Ch. 40B, which allows developers to override local zoning and build apartments in communities where less than 10 percent of the housing is affordable.

BOSTON --- While city inspectors continue to work declare the building safe, Trinity Financial is already making plans to rebuild the fire-torn 83-unit Treadmark apartment building, which caught fire on June 28, just days before it was scheduled to open. Trinity spokesman Matt Zahler said the company is working on a plan that may involve the demolition of the sixth floor.

QUINCY --- Three years after the city's designated master developer struck out due to money woes, it's evident that the city has methodically held to its vision for the reinvention of Quincy Center as Mayor Thomas Koch's administration has reached agreements with four developers, OK'd 400 apartments, commercial space, and large public infrastructure improvements, with more projects like the Quincy Center MBTA station redevelopment on the drawing board.