Housing Headlines

HOPKINTON --- A Southborough-based developer has proposed a 40B development for 149 Hayden Rowe Street. The proposed project will be located on a nearly three-acre site and will consist of 20 Cape Cod-style condominium units. The Board of Appeals must review the project before it can move forward.

BOSTON --- Bank of America, the largest bank in Massachusetts, has pulled out of one of the state's leading first-time homebuyer programs, a move that will make it harder for low-income and minority borrowers to get home loans, according to housing advocates. A BofA spokesman said the move was made as part of an effort to "simplify" the company.

STONEHAM --- The town's legal counsel and an affordable housing specialist retained by the town hinted this week that it may resort to procedural challenges to delay Corcorcan & Company bid to use Ch. 40B to build a 264-unit apartment complex on the 26-acre Weiss Farm property. .

BOSTON --- With only 22 percent of the city's 6,600 rental units currently under construction in the city, Mayor Martin J. Walshis seeking to dramatically increase production of middle-income housing in Boston.

AMHERST - Town Meeting has created the Amherst Affordable Housing Trust Fund that will allow the town more flexibility when creating or preserving affordable housing.

NORWOOD --- A bid to create a 40R zoning district that would would pave the way for a former press building to be turned into 238 apartments and commercial space near the train station has failed. On May 16, Norwood Town Meeting members voted 93-70 in favor of the project, which fell short of the required two-thrids majority for zoning changes.