Housing Headlines

AGAWAM --- Soldier On is expected to come before the town's zoning board of appeals later this month to seek approval for a Ch. 40B comprenhensive permit that will allow it to proceed with its $12 million housing development for homeless veterans. The Northampton-based nonprofit plans to revampi the former Western Massachusetts Regional Police Academy into 54 studio apartments. Soldier On President Jack Downing hopes to begin construction in July, providing that the nonprofit can obtain its permit and finalize financing.

LUNENBURG --- Lunenburg Housing Authority has reduced its operating costs over the last decade by regionalizing with the Leominster and Sterling housing authorities, according to Eugene J. Capoccia, executive director of the Leominster Housing Authority.

BOSTON --- A hundred affordable rental apartments in 14 local buildings are undergoing major renovations this year in two separate, multi-million-dollar projects. Urban Edge, a Jackson Square-based community development corporation, is now renovating 82 units in 10 buildings in the Brookside, Hyde Square and Egleston Square areas. The Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Development Corporation (JPNDC), another CDC, plans a spring renovation for 18 units in four buildings in central JP and Jackson Square.

SANDWICH --- A proposal to build the largest non-senior citizen affordable housing development on Cape Cod is back on track after a Barnstable Superior Court judge ruled recently in favor of developer Mark Wisentaner's 272-unit project. Wisentaner applied to the town for a Ch. 40B comprehensive permit back in 2004 and the town's zoning board of apeals approved the permit with 35 conditions. The Superior Court's decision upheld a previous ruling by the Massachusetts Housing Appeals Committee that the conditions set by the ZBA would result in a 35 percent loss for the developer.

MARTHA'S VINEYARD --- The number of affordable housing units available for rent or purchase on Martha's Vineyard is at an all-time high, but Island housing officials Philippe Jordi and David Vigneault say that fewer Island residents are financially qualified to buy, or even rent, housing priced as low as 50 percent of market home prices and rental rates.

LOWELL --- A commercial phase of Lowell's $800 million Hamilton Canal District revitalization project has hit a snag as a state nonprofit has turned down a developer's initial request for $5.4 million in grant funding. Trinity Financial, the Boston firm tabbed by the city to redevelop this 15-acre district, has already developed Appleton Mills into housing and had hoped to use MassWorks grant funds to rehab another mill into 55,000 square feet of commercial space.