Housing Headlines

HINGHAM --- The town's quest to gain control over further housing development by okaying developments that would put its supply over the state-required 10 percent took a step forward recently as selectmen agreed to back a scaled-down proposal by Alliance Residential to build 220 units at a former fire insurance company site on Beal Street. The company would still need to seek approval for a 40B permit from the zoning board of appeals but selectmen have backed the plan, which would put the town over 10 percent by 115 units.

IPSWICH --- An editorial in the Ipswich Chronicle says voters were shortsighted in voting down a proposal that would've allowed 20 smaller starter homes downtown, writing that while voters may have thought they were saving the downtown from rampant development and congestion, what they really did was leave themselves wide open to more 40B development.

VINEYARD HAVEN --- Four years of planning, permitting and building culminated Tuesday afternoon in a brief ribbon-cutting ceremony for 6 Water Street, a six-unit affordable rental complex in downtown Vineyard Haven.

LYNN — Built as a storehouse for arms, the next life for the Lynn Armory could be housing for vets as the Lynn Housing Authority has proposed to buy the 123-year old, 37,000 square foot landmark and convert it into 20 small apartments for veterans.

YARMOUTH --- Many neighbors of the proposed affordable housing project on the site of the Cavalier Motel on Route 28 continue to oppose the plan, despite a third and still smaller version recently submitted by the developer, which now proposes 69 units as opposed to the original 120.

OAK BLUFFS --- The owners of an 8,500-square foot downtown building that hosts a hardware store and nightclub have learned that existing zoning may limit their plans to raze their property and replace it with an 18,000 square foot building that would feature the same ground-floor businesses and add four two-bedroom and four one-bedroom apartments for workers on the third floor.