Housing Headlines

CONWAY --- Affordable housing is on the list of possible uses for an 11-acre town-owned site known as the Rose property and this small town of 1,800 located southwest of Greenfield is putting together a committee to study how to use the land.

WALTHAM --- A proposed voucher program that would assist "very low-income" Waltham households with Community Preservation Act (CPA) funds is in a holding pattern, as the city looks toward ways to oversee it. Supported by local WATCH CDC, the proposed Tentant Based Rental Assistance proposal asks that $500,000 in CPA funds be used to subsidize payments to landlords for 50 eligible households .

SHREWSBURY --- With three Ch. 40B comprehensive permit applications totalling 475 units on the horizon, Shrewsbury officials have indicated an interest in pursuing 'friendly' 40Bs that suit the town and are reluctant to make exceptions to a town bylaw that only grants sewer tie-ins for commercial projects.

CHICAGO --- A new survey of housing attitudes shows that six in 10 people (58 percent) believe that the government should be doing more to ensure that there is more rental housing and housing to buy, but 52 percent say they would not be in favor of relaxing zoning regulations so that different types of housing could be built.

FALL RIVER --- Discussion are continuing over what to do with the demolished Watuppa Heights public housing property, with the state and the local housing authority proposing a 50-unit rental development and the city countering with a plan to create 26 homes to be purchased by low-income buyers.

CHELMSFORD --- Despite concerns from residents about impacts on the neighborhood, the Chelmsford Zoning Board of Appeals last month unanimously approved a Ch. 40B comprehensive permit for Princeton Properties, allowing it to move forward with a 108-unit rental apartment development on Mill Road. Eighty-six units will be rented at market rates and 22 will be affordable to households whose income is less than 50 percent of the area's median income.