Housing Headlines

CHELMSFORD -- The town will build eight new housing units for veterans, and nearby Westford will create five, thanks to funding from both communities, the state Department of Housing and Community Development and other grants.

AMHERST - The community is grappling with another example of the strong demand for rental housing as several families at the 24-unit Echo Village Apartments may lose their housing at the end of March because the new owner intends to raise the rents.

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.