Housing Headlines

GLOUCESTER --- The city and the three-pronged partnership planning to develop the Fuller School site have reached agreement on a $5.6 million purchase-and-sale deal for the 10.6-acre property. The buyers - a partnership of the Cape Ann Y, Windover Construction and Sam Park & Company have proposed a new $15 million to $20 million YMCA, as well as 200 units of market rate housing to be built by the Dolben Co. of Woburn. The project will also include at least 20,000 square feet of retail space for Park, who owns the adjacent Gloucester Crossing property. The development is expected to generate an additional $1 million annually in tax revenue for the city,

LYNN --- The debate goes on in Lynn, with city officials saying it has more than enough affordable housing and certainly more than the 10 percent the state requires, but with advocates countering that 10 percent is considered the minimum and that more is needed, especially considering 66 percent of the population is considered low- and moderate-income.

BARNSTABLE --- The aging trend facing Massachusetts and the nation is on steroids in Barnstable County as a new report released this week says the region is losing young people and that nearly 35 percent of county residents will be over the age of 65 by 2035.

SOMERVILLE --- With the rest of Union Square poised to undergo a dramatic $1 million remake with commercial development and 2,300 units of housing, a development group is hoping to turn this little patch off Somerville Avenue into a new urban marketplace featuring dozens of micro-sized retail spaces, an idea that advocates hope will help "strike a balance with large-scale redevelopment and smaller-scale local ownership,” said Somerville Community Corporation's Danny LeBlanc.

In the face of stiff opposition from neighborhood residents, the Tisbury zoning board of appeals (ZBA) at a public hearing last week recommended to representatives of the Island Housing Trust (IHT) that the housing organization reduce its proposed Kuehn’s Way affordable apartment project from 20 to 16 units. IHT executive director Philippe Jordi said any reduction would push up unit costs and hinder efforts to seek state financing for the $6.3 million project.

HYANNIS — After more than three decades, the Housing Assistance Corp. may soon be out of the emergency homeless shelter business. Catholic Social Services of the Diocese of Fall River is negotiating with the agency to assume management of the NOAH emergency homeless shelter in downtown Hyannis, the two organizations announced Friday. It is uncertain how a takeover of the 55-bed shelter on Winter Street would affect plans by two committees to relocate the shelter away from downtown Hyannis.