Housing Headlines

HARVARD --- A super town meeting involving voters in Harvard, Shirley and Ayer will be set for later this year to allow residents to vote on a proposal by MassDevelopment to alter zoning so that senior housing can be built on the former Fort Devens army base site.

AMHERST --- Town officials are preparing a town meeting article that asks voters to give the town permission to make a formal appeal to the legislature for permission to grant tax incentives to developers who build affordable housing units.

BOSTON --- A national foundation that promotes excellence in land use is working with the City of Boston to evaluate transit-oriented, other residential, and commercial development opportunities along a one-mile stretch of Washington Street between the Forest Hills MBTA station and Egleston Square.

GRAFTON --- Selectmen have voted to direct the town administrator to work with town counsel to rewrite a town meeting article to specify that funds from a $1.3 million settlement with a developer over excess profits realized in a Ch. 40B development are deposited into the town's housing trust and not its general fund.

PROVINCETOWN --- A town meeting article proposing that the town spend $1.75 million to buy three-quarters of an acre so it could be developed into 25 homes for year-round families failed to garner the two-thirds majority needed for passage, causing one of the town's longtime renters to say, "These people think they have empathy, but until you rent, you have no idea what it's like. Until you are in that position of not having a home, and you feel that panic, you don't understand."

READING --- The Metropolitan Area Planning Council announced today that it has awarded the town a $27,000 grant to explore future development in selected growth areas and to make the permitting process easier for applicants.