Housing Headlines

BOSTON --- In an opinion piece in the Dorchester Reporter, Editor Bill Forry writes that before the city embarks on a new planning initiative for Glover's Corner, it may want to check back in with what's going on at Columbia Point, where a series of potential projects and proposals seems to be running counter to the vision put forth in a master plan developed by a neighborhood task force back in 2011.

SWAMPSCOTT --- Neighbors are not in favor of the proposal from Groom Construction to convert the shuttered Swampscott Middle School on Greenwood Avenue into 28 luxury apartments. Town Meeting last spring OK'd a zoning change allowing for a single apartment building, with the developer picking up the $1.3 million demolition cost. The developer will also opt out of the town's affordable housing requirement and instead will contribute $150,000 to the town's affordable housing trust.

BOSTON --- In an opinion piece in the Jamaica Plain News, Egleston Square Main Street board member Tim Reardon writes that "a small group of insiders and protesters intent on discouraging development" have pressured the City of Boston to release a development plan for the Jackson Square/Forest Hills corridor that will actually reduce the amount of new housing that could be built.

CAMBRIDGE --- Measures to boost affordable housing and small business development in Central Square were given a swift kick forward recently as the City Council voted to refer the legislation back to the ordinance subcommittee while also voicing displeasure with the Community Development Department's slow progress on crafting requirements that have been in the works since 2012.

NEWTON --- In his ongoing reporting of tear downs, Jonathan Dame reports that the city issued 105 permits for full home demolition permits in 2016 (including 12 two-family homes) and has averaged 97 the past three years, which is up from an average of 46 from 2006-2010. Dame also reports that roughly half of the teardowns took place in just six of the city's 32 precincts, encompassing all of Oak Hill, the section of Newton Highlands south of Route 9, parts of Waban, and West Newton south of the Mass. Pike.

STOCKBRIDGE --- Over 100 residents packed a Planning Board meeting to criticize zoning changes that would allow the owners to develop of one of the town's remaining "cottage" mansion properties into a 209-unit mixed use development that would include a hotel, condos and single-family homes on 320 acres. One resident called the zoning proposal "carpetbagger-enabling amendments" that would grant "expanded rights" to developers.