Housing Headlines

GREENFIELD --- The town has issued a Request for Proposals in hopes of attracting a developer who will build seven mixed-income housing units on an acre of land that the town purchased with federal block grant funds. The project is part of a long-term plan to improve the Deerfield Street Corridor with sidewalk, park and housing investments.

BILLERICA --- Citing there would be numerous benefits such as increasing affordable housing, reusing a vacant office propertyand having apartments that would help the town attract business, the Billerica selectmen voted 4-1 to support Alliance Residential's Company's "friendly 40B" application to build 200 apartments.

DORCHESTER --- Neighbors will get a chance to weigh in on plans by Vietnamese American Initiative for Development, Inc. (Viet-AID) to turn two vacant Bowdoin St. lots into 41 apartments at a public meeting on Feb. 9 at 6:30 p.m. at the Teen Center, 278 Bowdoin St.

WOBURN --- The Zoning Board of Appeals has asked National Development to revise parts of its Ch. 40B application before beginning to consider the developer's plan to build 200 units behind the Marriott Residence Inn. The site has been identified by the city as a suitable location for large-scale housng and the developer is referring to its permit bid as a "friendly 40B."

MARSHFIELD --- After not seeing Ch. 40B proposals for a few years, the town is now reviewing two proposals - a 40-unit proposal of duplexes and single-family homes, and a 270-unit rental project, which if approved would put the town over 10 percent and give it safe harbor from future 40Bs.

PEMBROKE --- A developer's plan to build 68 condominiums with a Ch. 40B permit has caught the attention of the town as 50 residents showed up at a selectmen's meeting to oppose the project and the selectmen voted unanimously to pass a resolution calling for a one-year moratorium on all multifamily projects.Developer Brian Murphy has proposed to build the development on a 50-acre site, of which about 30 acres are considered wetlands.