Housing Headlines

HAMILTON --- With some residents threatening to sue the town if it didn't back off, the Board of Selectmen and the Affordable Housing Trust are going back to the drawing board after having its three proposed sites for affordable housing shot down by residents.

QUINCY --- By an 8-1 vote, the City Council voted to remove the exemption Quincy Center has had from the city's inclusionary zoning bylaw, which requires that 10 percent of the units in projects of 10 units or more are affordable. The requirements will not apply to two projects already in the permitting stage – Chestnut Place, a 15-story, 124-unit apartment building planned for the Hancock Lot, and Nova Residences, a 171-unit apartment building planned along Hancock Street.

TISBURY --- On the first night of Town Meeting, voters approved $570,000 in CPA funds to support Kuehn's Way, a 20-unit affordable housing development proposed by the Island Housing Trust for a 4.5 acre site off State Road.

LOWELL --- The nonprofit Coalition for a Better Acre is teaming with a property management company to buy and develop the former Franco American School into mixed-income housing, with an additional agreement that it will develop the site while protecting the character of the buildings and grounds in perpetuity.

AMHERST --- Looking to provide Amherst's homeless population with the next step on the ladder toward housing stability, the nonprofit Valley CDC is beginning to look at sites that could be developed into single-room occupancy apartments for extremely low-income individuals. Valley CDC has received support for the work to find a site that can accommodate 16 to 40 studio-style apartments with $50,703 from a Community Development Block Grant provided by Amherst. Valley CDC already operates four SRO facilities totaling 53 apartments in Florence and Northampton.

BOSTON --- A legislative hearing on a zoning reform bill that would encourage denser housing and preserve open space attracted a range of testimony this week, with experts testifying on the need for multifamily housing, advocates decrying current local zoning as tantamount to having "gated communities" and developers warning that increased regulation would threaten their ability to finance projects.