Housing Headlines

CAMBRIDGE --- The City Council has voted to boost the required amount or affordable housing developers must provide from 15 to 20 percent. The new bylaw is for developments of 10 units or more and is slated to become law on June 30. Mayor Denise Simmons saluted the move but reminded voters more needs to be done. “This is not one and done,” Simmons said. “There’s so much work that is yet to happen in order for us to keep Cambridge diverse and affordable, but this is clearly an important step.”

PROVINCETOWN --- Build affordable units or pay. That's what Provincetown residents decided, voting by the necessary two-thirds majority to pass an inclusionary zoning bylaw that requires developers to provide an affordable unit for every six units built, or opt out by paying into the town's housing fund.

WORCESTER --- Heeding resident concerns about parking, the city's Zoning Board of Appeals unanimously rejected a plan to turn a four-family home near Clark University into a 28-bed lodging house that developers say would be targeted to graduate students.

CAMBRIDGE --- St. Patrick's Place - one of 18 buildings damaged by a wind-swept fire in December - will soon be rebuilt as affordable housing owner Just-A-Start has received permission to demolish the remains of the heavily damaged historic church and replace it with a new 16-unit affordable housing apartment building.

NEWTON --- In what a planning department official called a "low-impact" way to address the city's housing needs, the City Council passed by a 22-2 vote an ordinance that would allow accessory apartments by right with an amendment that all detached units go through the special permit process.

PROVINCETOWN --- A Maryland firm that is the other bidder on a bankrupt time share that the town wants to purchase for affordable housing is trying to derail the auction process by filing a suit that argues that time-share owners aren't like regular property owners, and an outright sale to the town would trigger third-party claims that would fail to produce a clear title.