Housing Headlines

BURLINGTON --- With construction of 180 units underway, Nordblom Development Company has received approval from the planning board to proceed with an additional 120 apartments, 10 percent of which would be affordable. The two phases are part of a Planned Development District OK'd by town meeting in 2007 for Northwest Park, a mixed-use technology park.

AMHERST --- Selectmen signed documents authorizing permanent affordable restrictions for 41 units at the 204-unit Rolling Green Apartments, punctuating a long effort in which the town used $1.2 million in CPA funds to help preserve the affordable units. Beacon Communities of Boston ended up buying the property, financing it with federal low-income housing tax credits awarded by the state and $8.7 million in loans from the Life Initiative.

BOSTON --- In a first step toward creating a community vision for Parcel 12, one of the last undeveloped properties in Chinatown, the Asian Community Development Corp. brought residents together, gave them a budget and had them build a hypothetical housing development with candy to show them how much it costs and the impact affordable apartments have on development budgets.

WESTPORT --- With rehabilitating affordable homes and keeping them on the town's subsidized inventory a top priority, the Westford Affordable Housing Trust Fund is working with the town to seek approval from the state to resume the town's housing rehabilitation program.

ARLINGTON --- Impact on wetlands is a primary concern of residents and the town in its oppositin to a 219-unit housing development being proposed by Oaktree Development for the so-called Mugar family property near Rt. 2.

ACTON --- While residents are reacting negatively to a Ch. 40B proposal for a historic 2.7 acre lot on Elm St. near an elementary school, the town's nonprofit housing corporation is working with the developer to come up with an alternative plan that could work better for the neighborhood.