Housing Headlines

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.

MALDEN --- Vacant for more than a decade, the 17.6 acre Malden Hospital site is back in the news, with City Councilor John Matheson pushing that the site keep its zoning and be re-purposed into single-family homes and open space while Mayor Gary Christenson is leaning toward a proposal by developer Tony Green to build 18 cottages, 72 condos and 224 apartments while leaving seven acres as open space with walking trails. Christenson indicated he thinks Green's plan is a better fit for the city as long as the developer continues to address neighborhood concerns.

HYANNIS --- The developer who is proposing to build 30 market-rate condos on the former site of the Dockside Restaurant has asked the town to waive its inclusionary zoning bylaw that requires that 10 percent of the units be affordable, arguing that the project represents the redevelopment of a property into a new neighborhood and that requiring three affordable units represents an extra $400,000 to $600,000 in project costs.

SOMERVILLE --- Despite the protests of an estimated "hundreds" outside city hall, the planning board voted 5-1 to waive the new inclusionary bylaw conditions that would have required the developer of Assembly Row to make 20 percent of its apartment units affordable in its next phase of development, instead agreeing to a compromise that calls for Federal Realty Investment Trust (FRIT) to do 16 percent, 31 of which will be on site and $10.3 million to support 49 apartments off site. The context of asking for the waiver was because last year changed its inclusionary bylaw, boosting the required total from 12.5 percent to 20 percent.

HYANNIS --- The nonprofit Homeless Not Hopeless' bid to buy a residential home and turn it into housing for eight homeless individuals is now in doubt as the seller has asked to be released from the purchase and sale contract amidst strong objections from neighbors about locating the homeless home in their neighborhood.