Housing Headlines

BROOKLINE --- Having complied with a short-term plan to show progres, Brookline has been granted a one-year reprieve from future Ch. 40B housing proposals so it can deal with the proposals before them. Previously, the state had granted Brookline more time to deal with 10 40B proposals before them. Since that waiver, Brookline has OK'd 131 units and four projects located at 420 Harvard St., 40 Centre St., 1180 Boylston St., and 384 Harvard St.

In an opinion piece for the Boston Globe, reporter and author George Donnelly says horror stories about people trying to find housing is a symptom of Boston's broken real estate market. Quoting MHP's Clark Ziegler, Donnelly notes that a legislative effort to require communities to zone for multifamily is gaining steam but he urges that change better come fast before Massachusetts loses too many workers to places with more affordable housing.

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.