Housing Headlines

WESTFORD --- Selectmen have delayed their decision on whether to support a town meeting warrant that would designate 3.2 acres of a 40-acre town site for affordable housing. Residents near the so-called Edwards Parcel are circulating a petition against the town's efforts to explore the feasibility of developing 25 units of affordable housing on the site.

AMHERST --- Even though Rolling Green Apartments has prepaid a mortgage that could end an affordability mandate, the company may be obligated to set aside a portion of its 204 units for low-income residents, 40 who have been paying rent with Section 8 vouchers.

ASHLAND --- In the past decade the town has spent $10 million buying land to save for special purposes including natural preservation and affordable housing, but local officials have neglected to take steps necessary to officially protect those sites. The land, which totals about 67 acres not including 118 acres at Warren Woods, was purchased with money from the Community Preservation Act.

QUINCY --- By a 9-0 vote, city councilors OK'd a special permit to allow for a 6-story, 180-unit apartment building to rise up over Burgin Parkway near the Quincy Adams T station, even as they voiced strong concerns about making traffic in this area even worse. In response to councilor concerns, the developers, Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, agreed to pay $100,000 toward the cost of building a high-visibility crosswalk on Burgin Parkway. The developers opted out of incorporating affordable units into the building and will instead pay a $180,000 fee to the Quincy Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

WESTFORD --- Six years after another company first proposed to build multi-family housing on Littleton Road, construction has finally begun on a 200-unit housing complex. Construction workers broke ground on July 15 at the 16 Littleton Road site. The property is being developed with a Ch. 40B comprehensive permit awarded by the town to Lowell-based Princeton Properties and Boston-based Guggenheim Real Estate. Forty of the units will be affordable in this $35 million project. In addition to a 40B permit, the town supported the development with $150,000 from its affordable housing trust fund.

NORWOOD --- With the approval of a 262-unit 40B apartment complex at Upland Woods, Norwood is one step closer toward reaching its 10 percent affordable housing goal. Norwood needs approximately 539 to meet that goal, a total that will be almost cut in half when the state recognizes the town's recent approval of a permit for the 262-unit Upland Woods. In addition, selectmen recently approved the first of the two 40R projects before the town, Plimpton Press, which if it goes forward would add 270 more units to the town's subsidized housing inventory.