Housing Headlines

BOSTON --- Neighbors on M Street in South Boston are up in arms over a plan by a developer to tear down a single-family home and build a larger building with five condos. Neighbors see it as the latest example of a wave of construction and gentrification that is sweeping through Southie. A lawyer for the developer says the project meets all zoning regulations but needs community support on design, material and landscaping to proceed. One neighbor called the new building's design an "architectural atrocity."

ACTON ---- The Zoning Board of Appeals has OK'd a Ch.40B comprehensve land use permit for Anthem Villages, a 28-home development that will consist of 22 new, single-family detached residences, two duplex buildings, and the rehabilitation of two single-family historic houses. Seven of the units will be sold to income-qualified families.

EVERETT --- By a 10-2 vote, the Everett City Council has approved an inclusionary zoning ordinance for apartment developments of 10 units of more, capping several years of efforts by Mayor Carlo DeMaria's administration to win council approval.

HYANNIS --- Family-owned homes and land used for parking lots along Pleasant St. - known by locals as "Sea Captain's Row - are being eyed for conversion into 50 to 72 apartments aimed at young professionals by CapeBuilt Development, which is proposing the idea in partnership with the McEvoy family, longtime owners of the properties. The land owner, Maurice McEvoy, died in 2014 and the family properties on Pleasant and South Street have been estimated to be worth over $2 million.

SHREWSBURY --- Early reaction from selectmen is that they seem to like a developer's proposal to turn a former 75-acre drive in site into a $60 million mixed-use development that would include a grocery store, other retail and 316 housing units, including 298 apartments. Part of the critical discussion concerned the inclusion of a den in the two-bedroom drawings, which some selectmen speculated would be used as a bedroom and would attract children to the town.

BROCKTON --- Just over $3 million in funding from the Baker Administration will enable Father Bill's & Main Spring to move forward with its plans to build 23 supportive housing units for the homeless and military veterans. The new building will be built on the old Phaneuf Hospital site, which was torn down two weeks ago. It will be next to Father Bill's Montello Home project and will be known as Montello Home II.