January
29
2016
NANTUCKET --- As many as 25 neighbors and abutters of the proposed controversial 56-unit Surfside Commons 40B affordable-housing development packed a recent Zoning Board of Appeals meeting to voice their concerns over the proposal by Atlantic Development.
January
27
2016
SOMERVILLE --- About 65 members of a local group called Zone Smart packed a Residential Neighborhoods Zoning Overhaul Meeting to ask that the city re-examine a decades-old law that limits the number of unrelated people in a single dwelling to four.
January
27
2016
NEWTON --- Consultant Judi Barrett, part of a team hired by Mayor Setti Warren to develop an affordable housing strategy didn't hold back at a public form recently, saying Newton’s ambiguous zoning code and politicized permitting process have created an unpredictable land use scheme that leads to long drawn out fights between developers and residents while not creating much new affordable housing for the city.
January
27
2016
BILLERICA --- With waiting lists for local public housing at 10 years for families and three years for seniors, Billerica Housing Authority Executive Director Robert Correnti is asking the town about the possibility of creating more housing at the old Ditson School, which is now empty after the Middlesex County Sherriff's Office moved out.
January
27
2016
SOMERVILLE --- City officials are rejecting a lawsuit alleging that the billion-dollar renewal of Union Square is illegal, and are looking to spend significant amounts to fight it and other Union Square-related lawsuits. The lawsuit, filed last year by Aliki Phishev, the title holder of 47 Webster St, and 10 other Somerville taxpayers argues that the state-approved plan for the area is full of properties that aren't dilapidated or blighted and thus don’t meet conditions required urban renewal.
January
26
2016
EASTHAM --- The Eastham Affordable Housing Trust is considering a request by developer Richard Hayden of the Stratford Capital Group to contribute $800,000 in local Community Preservation Act funds to support a proposed 115-unit 'friendly 40B' affordable housing development on a former Rt. 6 driving range.