Housing Headlines

PROVINCETOWN --- Calling it a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get move-in-ready apartments to jump-start the town's new Year Round Rental Housing Trust, the board has scheduled a special town meeting Feb. 6 and a vote the next day on raising money to bid on the bankrupt 26-unit Harbor Hill time-share property. The 1.2 acre site has been valued at $6.8 million.

BOSTON --- At a Boston Planning and Development Agency meeting before Christmas, developer Joseph Taylor asked to switch his 27-unit condo plan for River Street in Mattapan from condo to rental while the development team of POAH and Nuestra Comunidad provided an update on their plans to develop a Mattapan MBTA site into 135 apartments and 12,000 square feet of commercial space.

CONCORD --- Residents said at a public meeting that a town-affiliated housing corporation charged with facilitating the development of a state prison parcel conveyed to the town have not been up front in their planning of an 83-unit assisted living development that would be built by the Grantham Group. One selectman chirmed in, saying the public needs more information, especially since the developers are seeking local funding to help make the project affordable.

LUDLOW --- Selectmen minced few words in voicing their displeasure about HAPHousing's plans to build 43 affordable apartments on a five-acre site it recently purchased, saying it's too close to a school, a swamp and a busy intersection.

NEWTON --- The developer of a proposed 68-unit mixed-income housing development for a municipal parking lot on Austin Street in Newtonville hopes to begin construction in the spring but that depends on the dismissal of the second of two suits brought by three abutters, this one questioning whether the City Council public hearing notices included necessary specifics.

BOSTON --- The developers of a 362-unit mixed-use development on a four-acre parcel at Dorchester and Hancock streets have a new financial backer and seem poised to begin construction on their so-called "Dot Block" project this summer.