Housing Headlines

WALPOLE --- Walpole officials say they are expecting to hear from Barberry Homes about their plans to apply to the town for a Ch. 40B comprehensive permit so they can build an undisclosed amount of rental housing on Moosehill Road. The Natick-based company has built houses in Westborough, Sudbury and Marlborough, and also built a Chapter 40R smart-growth apartment complex in Natick, which allows mixed use and denser housing.

CONCORD --- Nearly 25 years after the Eagles' Don Henley and other local activists created the Walden Woods Project to stop a housing proposal near Walden Pond, the group has delivered on its promise to find suitable land elsewhere, announcing that the state would be transferring to the town a 12-acre parcel near the prison so that it can be developed into affordable housing.

FRAMINGHAM --- The developers of Danforth Green plan to ask the town for a zoning variance that would allow them to increase the percentage of rental units in their 360-unit project. The MacDowell family, which is planning to redevelop a former sand and gravel pit on the Wayland line, will ask the town to allow them increase the percentage of rental units to 66 precent from the 20 percent required in the town's Planned Unit Development bylaw. The developers said their request is in response to the market's demand for rental housing.

PLYMOUTH --- Residents of the 150-unit Pontus Meadows affordable housing development are launching a campaign to convince the owners to apply for pubic subsidies that would keep the apartments affordable. The owners, Simon Properties, have paid off their loans and satisfied their affordability requirements on the 40-year-old property and now can charge market rents.

LITTLETON --- Despite persistent abutter concerns voiced throughout the public hearing process, the town's zoning board of appeals has granted a Ch. 40B comprehensive permit to Omni Propeties so it can develop 190 apartments that will also include an onsite wastewater treatment plant and a $1.2 million payment to the town for sewer easements.

WORCESTER --- In a special report, the Telegram's Elaine Thompson documents the journey of a homeless family from Lynn that was placed in a Worcester hotel because it was the only place that could handle a family with nine children. Thompson reports that the family - whose father commutes to his job in Lynn every day - is among 1,503 homeless families that the state has placed in motel rooms as of Feb. 12. While the numbers are high, especially at a public cost of $3,000 per family, Thompson reports that numbers have declined over the past few months due to the state's focus on stopping the practice of placing needy families in motels.