Housing Headlines

NORWELL --- Plans to turn the old police station into housing are continuing, with the town's Community Housing Trust working with the non-profit MetroWest Collaborative Development to turn the station into 18 rental units for seniors. The Waltham-based non-profit said they would be applying to the state for funding and also hope to use $1 million in CPA funds that Town Meeting voted into the trust recently.

BARNSTABLE --- The new executive director of the Housing Assistance Corporation of Cape Cod began her career in entertainment, but found her way into nonprofit work when she began volunteering for an arts organization for inner city youth.

BROOKLINE --- The developer who has been in litigation with the town over the expansion of Hancock Village has now pitched a 21-story, 320-apartment residential complex for the town’s Coolidge Corner neighborhood under the state’s affordable housing law, but local officials say they want to limit the scope of the project.

ARLINGTON --- The Arlington Redevelopment Board has granted a special permit to allow a 14-unit development on Broadway, making it the first project to take advantage of bylaws Town Meeting passed in the spring to encourage mixed-use development on Mass. Ave. and Broadway, two of the town's main commercial corridors.

AMHERST — Determining building heights, ensuring there is sufficient outdoor play space and keeping a pedestrian path from entering onto a road are among the concerns residents expressed at the first of three scheduled Zoning Board of Appeals meetings concerning a 130-unit mixed-use project that Boston-based Beacon Communities is hoping to build with a Ch. 40B comprehensive permit.

CAMBRIDGE --- MIT presented plans for public comment this week on the design for a new 28-story Kendall Square dormitory and the open-space plan for the five-building complex it received approval for this summer. Despite that approval, each building must go through its own design review.