Housing Headlines

NATICK - The Housing Authority is seeking state funding to renovate numerous empty apartments. Acting Executive Director Eileen Merritt has told the authority's board she applied for more than $200,000 from the state Affordable Housing Trust Fund to renovate 30 units, most of which are at the Cedar Gardens complex.

BOURNE --- The Stratford Group of Peabody recently submitted plans to rehabilitate the former Coady School building into 58 units of senior housing. Developers plan to build an addition on to the existing building and to designate at least 25 percent of the units as affordable for residents meeting certain income criteria. The ZBA will review the proposal at a meeting on December 5 in Town Hall.

WORCESTER --- At the state Department of Housing and Community Development hosuing conference on Tuesday, Nov. 13, Governor Deval Patrick detailed a plan to produce 10,000 multifamily housing units a year through 2020 in an effort to keep young professionals from leaving Massachusetts. The initiative includes a program called Compact Neighborhoods that will encourage and create housing near workplaces, public transportation, and city and village centers, Patrick said.

NEEDHAM --- Selectmen are unanimous in their opposition to a proposed 300-unit apartment complex on Greendale Avenue. The Greendale Mews project would consist of three four-story building with 300 apartments; 75 of those apartments would be designated as affordable. The project would also include a one-story amenity area and a two-level parking garage located underneath the buildings.

FITCHBURG --- Idle and in a semi-renovated state for six years due to a lack of funding, a 10-story downtown public housing apartment complex has been renovated into 96 units of affordable rental housing for the elderly and disabled. Fitchburg Place - formerly called Groop Townview Towers - was redeveloped with $19 million public and private funds by WinnDevelopment, which acquired the property last October through a joint venture partnership with the Fitchburg Housing Authority.

WORCESTER --- A comprehensive housing market study that will be used by city officials to reshape its housing policies has recommended that the city maintain a supply of 9,000 to 9,600 affordable housing units to meet the needs of its population. The study found that Worcester currently has 9,400 "income-based" units and that 33,000 households in the city would qualify for these units.