Housing Headlines

MILTON --- More than 130 residents came before selectmen in March to protest the 276-unit Milton Mews project on Brush Hill Road. Roughly half of the audience was made up of residents of Fuller Village, a 300-unit senior community across the street from the site of the proposed development brought before the town by Mill Creek Residential.

BOSTON (DORCHESTER) --- The city's Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) recently approved a plan to build 278 rental units on what is now a vacant lot on Morrissey Boulevard, adjacent to the JFK/UMass T station. The plan calls for 50 percent of the units to be studios, averaging around 450 square feet. The additional units will be made up of one, two and three-bedroom units. Work is slated to begin this summer and expected to last 18 months.

HINGHAM --- Rather than continue to pursue a Ch. 40B permit so it can build 177 apartments in South Hingham, AvalonBay has reached a tentative agreement to sell the land to the town. The tentative agreement, which is subject to town meeting approval, is for the town to purchase approximately 18 acres for $3.7 million in order to build a wastewater treatment facility that will include a buffer from surrounding commercial operations for neighboring residential properties.

HINGHAM --- A Brighton-based developer has applied for a Ch. 40B comprehensive permit to build 20 homeownership units on 13 acres of land on Main St. between Constitution and Highfield roads, across from the House of Prayer Lutheran Church. The proposal comes one week after developer AvalonBay had agreed to allow the sale of an 18-acre parcel in South Hingham to the town instead of pursuing a controversial 177-unit housing project there. The town plans to build a water treatment plant on the site.

CHELMSFORD --- By a 3-1 vote, selectman OK'd a proposal in which the town would move to buy land on Littleton Road and then have the housing authority develop it into 115 units of affordable rental housing. The proposal now needs the approval of town meeting.

PLYMOUTH --- The town's housing authority director continues to spar with Simon Properties over resident incomes at Pontus Meadows and how many residents will experience much higher rents on May 1 when the owners raise rents after pre-paying their 40-year federal mortgage, which allows them to convert the affordable housing development into market-rate housing.