Housing Headlines

QUINCY --- In response to resident feedback, the Boncaldo family has revised its request for a Ch. 40B land use permit, proposing to cut its plan from 40 to 32 apartments. Since the new plan has just been submitted, the Zoning Board of Appeals has delayed its vote so it can study the new plan and now saysit won't vote until its June 13 meeting.

SWAMPSCOTT --- Town Meeting voters were "in the zone" earlier this month, passing two zoning changes, one that establishes a tourist lodging overlay district along the coast and another that would require projects of 10 units or more to have 10 percent of the units be affordable.

DORCHESTER --- City data is showing that while rents for newly constructed units continue to climb, properties built before 2011 have seen a four percent drop in prices in the city overall and five percent in Dorchester.

BEDFORD --- A recent story in the Bedford Citizen noted that the clearing of trees has begun on the former Coast Guard site, a seemingly insignificant blurb until you consider that the activity is the end of the beginning of a three-year effort by the town to get control of the site. The town worked with the federal government, used its local housing trust to get a six-month option to purchase the site and then the town issued a Request for Proposal from developers who would agree to buy the land under the condition that it would pursue the town's guidelines that 30 mixed-income apartments or condos be built on the site rather than five high-priced homes. The link above takes you to a January story that reports on the selection of the developer. Whatever is built, there will be affordable units which will add to the town's count, which is currently over 18 percent, believed to be the fifth highest in the state.

BOSTON --- The Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC) has relaunched and rebranded its development data base which tracks development across the Commonwealth. Designed to help the development community, municipalities and planners plan, MAPC has renamed this initiative MassBuilds and has developed a new web site tool which will allow users to research what's been built where and to download data to do analysis on development trends and needs.

NEWTON --- The Newton developer who is hoping to transform a busy Newton intersection near the Mass Pike and the commuter rail into a mixed-use development with 160 apartments has submitted new plans to the City Council which creates an abutter buffer zone between the project and a nearby street.