Housing Headlines

ARLINGTON --- Saying that the wait list for the 93 units in their portfolio is 1,000 people, Housing Corporation of Arlington Executive Director Pam Hallett defended her proposal to build 34 affordable apartments in Arlington Heights while residents questioned its size and impact on the neighborhood.

BOSTON --- Fenway neighbors last month made their voices heard about plans to build a 29-story mixed-use 295-unit building called Two Charlesgate West, saying the building will be too high and will stick out like a "sore thumb." According to the story, an undisclosed amount of units will be affordable, with 50 percent on site and 50 percent built elsewhere, in coordination with input from the Fenway CDC.

WEST TISBURY — Having gained approval from the planning board the week before, the Island Housing Trust's plan to build nine affordable units at Manter Field took another step forward earlier this month as special town meeting approved spending $900,000. The development, which will be located off Edgartown Road, will be a mix of one-, two- and three-bedroom units affordable to households at or below 80 percent of median income.

NEWTON -- Newton-based Northland Development has unveiled plans to develop 28 acres at the end of Needham St. near the Newton-Needham town line into a mixed-use development that would include 950 apartments, 175-square feet of office space and 200,000 square feet of retail space.The project would stretch from the corner of Oak and Needham streets (the former Clarks Shoes headquarters), up to Chestnut Street, and over to the Marshalls Plaza.

JAMAICA PLAIN --- A long-awaited draft of a plan to rezone the Jamaica Plain/Roxbury corridor with 3,500 housing units was greeted with dismay recently, as residents at a public meeting at Boston English spoke against it while calling attention to other speakers, who dramatized the death of community values by holding signs like "death by government planned systematic classism" and "in memory of cultural expression." The Boston Planning and Development Agency had planned to reveal plans for the Columbus Ave. and Washington Street corridor in the summer but delayed it to allow for more community discussion.

SWANSEA --- Local developers Phil Martelly and Jamie Duff will ask the Zoning Board of Appeals for a Ch. 40B comprehensive permit so they can build 14 townhouse units on a 1.4 acre site previously occupied by the Knights of Columbus Hall. The developers purchased the property in 2012 and later knocked the building down. If successful, the builders would be required to sell four of the homes at affordable prices.