Housing Headlines

TEWKSBURY --- A request for $90,000 in Community Preservation Act funds to rehab and expand Janet's House - a sober house for women - was denied by the CPC committee on the basis of it's status as a rehabilitation project, which the committee said is not allowed under CPC rules.

ANDOVER --- Hanover Properties of Boston and Houston moved one step closer to beginning work on a 250-unit Ch. 40B affordable housing development in the Shattuck Road industrial park after Suffolk Superior Court denied an appeal by five nearby businesses to stop the project.

KINGSTON --- Developer Peter Conant and his company, Own A Home Massachusetts, wants to build nine expandable starter homes next to the town's old fire house on Maple St. A spokesman for the company said the first floor of each home would be fully developed, the second floor would be unfinished and the sales price would be $300,000. The second floor would be finished if the buyer prefers. When complete, the homes would be two stories with two bedrooms, one and a half baths and a two-car garage.

SOMERVILLE --- Affordability was the theme of the annual State of the City address recently, with Mayor Joe Curtatone, Alderman President Bill White and School Committee Chairman Adam Sweeting all pledging to work so working families aren't priced out of the city as a result of the Green Line expansion and redevelopment of Union Square.

QUINCY --- In its ongoing series about city neighborhoods, the Patriot Ledger looks at the Montclair section of North Quincy, where new immigrants mix with old residents, where condos near the train station can go for $370,000 and where City Councilor Dennis Coughlin is concerned that builders are opting to pay into the local affordable housing trust rather than include affordable housing in their projects.

MATTAPAN --- About 150 community members heard from four developers about their plans to redevelop the long-abandoned Cote Ford site. Making proposals were Corcoran Jennison, Codman Square NDC, Hyde Park resident Faubert Smith and a partnership that includes Caribbean Integration Community Development, AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust and the Planning Office for Urban Affairs.