Housing Headlines

NORTH QUINCY --- The public has received its first glimpse of a developer’s plans to build more than 600 apartments, 50,000 square feet of retail space and roughly 1,000 parking spaces on top of the North Quincy MBTA station parking lot. The project is being proposed by Atlantic Development of Hingham in partnership with The Bozzuto Group of Washington, D.C.

WATERTOWN --- New zoning rules that would require multi-family developers to make 12.5 to 15 percent of their units affordable depending on the size and location of their project has been approved by three key committees and now will go to the Watertown Town Council for approval.

PROVINCETOWN --- Having finally gained state approval for a housing trust that will focus on supporting more year-round market rate housing, local leaders in Provincetown are now debating how to best utilize the fund, which has received an initial $1.5 million from the town. Ideas being considered include buying condos and marketing them as year-round rentals and purchasing deed restrictions from property owners for some of their units.

In the Nov. 8 election, 11 cities and towns in Massachusetts, including Boston, voted to adopt the state's Community Preservation Act (CPA) on Tuesday, according to the Community Preservation Coalition. Along with Boston, the following communities voting to adopt were Billerica, Chelsea, Holyoke, Hull, Norwood, Pittsfield, Rockland, Springfield, Watertown and Wrentham. Voting against were Amesbury, Danvers, East Bridgewater, Palmer and South Hadley.

BOSTON --- Officials offered special praise for South Boston Neighborhood Development Corporation's Donna Brown for her many years of dedication in developing the former South Boston police station into affordable housing that will house 24 low-income or homeless vets. “Eight years is a long time to push this through the process,” said U.S. Rep. Stephen F. Lynch. “Thank God we had Donna Brown to stay at it. .... We could build 10 of these and fill them with the vets that need it."

FRANKLIN --- State and local leaders gathered recently to celebrate the grand opening of Murphy-Rosa House, a new Franklin Housing Authority property that will provide eight units of housing for the developmentally disabled. Supported by the state Dept. of Developmental Services, the multifamily home on Plain St. was named after former housing authority director Mildred Murphy and board member Grace Rosa.