Housing Headlines

BOSTON, Aug. 6, 2013 --- A pivotal Uphams Corner property near the Fairmount commuter rail became embroiled in controversy recently after neighbors learned that the city was discussing turning the former industrial site into a public works yard. The news surprised local stakeholders, who have been advocating that the city-owned site become a mixed-use transit-oriented development. The controversey died down when a spokesperson for Mayor Thomas Menino said that the mayor "agrees" with the neighbors.

BOSTON, Aug. 6, 2013 --- In an Aug. 6 Boston Globe op-ed, Commonwealth Magazine's Paul McMorrow - a regular Globe contributor - questions the legislative tactic of attaching to an affordable housing funding bill an amendment designed to block a specific affordable housing development proposal.

SALEM --- Nine years after it closed, the transformation of the former St. Jospeh's Church complex into 51 affordable rental homes is nearly complete, with applications being accepted, a lottery scheduled for September and the project expected to be done and fully occupied by Jan. 2014. The new housing, which will be called 135 Lafayette, is being developed by the Planning Office for Urban Affairs, a developer affiliated with the Archdiocese of Boston.

NEEDHAM --- Mill Creek Residential will get a third public hearing Aug. 15 on its proposal to build a 300-unit apartment complex on Greendale Avenue in Needham, even as the town is urging that the project be downsized due to its potential impact on the neighborhood. The town has the 6-acre site zoned so that a maximum of four residential units can be built on one acre, although town officials said guidelines would allow up to 10 units per acre for affordable developments. The developers have applied to the town for a Ch. 40B permit, which would allow them to build 50 units per acre.

NORTH ATTLEBORO --- "We're going to fight you to the end," a resident yelled after a Great Bridge Properties (GBP) had finished explaining changes it was making to its 44-unit housing proposal to address previous neighborhood concerns. During a community meeting attended by about 80 residents, GBP principal partner Chris Davies said new plans included moving the building away from the street, reducing it from four to three stories and doing a colonial design more in keeping with the neighborhood near the intersection of routes 1 and 120. Davies said that the housing should be considered "work force" as opposed to low income and all applicants would get income and criminal checks. "Believe it or not, we really tried to listen," said Davies, whose company redeveloped Attleboro's Bliss School into 38 apartments.

WILLIAMSTOWN --- A push by selectmen to have restrictions removed from two properties so that they can be considered for affordable housing has stalled as the Conservation Commission declined to vote on the proposal and instead referred the measure to town counsel. Selectmen and other town groups have been pushing to increase the town's affordable housing supply ever since Tropical Storm Irene floodwaters damaged or destroyed more than 200 homes at the Spruces Mobile Home Park in 2011.