Housing Headlines

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.

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.