Housing Headlines

ANDOVER --- The Andover Zoning Board of Appeals will be busy for the next several months as it is holding hearing on two applications for 40B comprehensive permits - a 288-unit proposal on 10 acres on Shattuck Road and a 298-unit proposal on the grounds of the Rolling Green golf course.

In an opinion piece for the local paper, Plymouth's community development director, Bruce Arons, worries about the lack of affordable housing given that wages have not kept up with the high cost of housing, even though prices have dipped lately.

CHATHAM --- The town's affordable housing trust fund committee has approved the use of $345,000 to acquire 3.5 acres and help the Chatham Housing Authority begin the development of five affordable homes. Of this total, $300,000 will be used to purchase the West Chatham property and $45,000 will be used for predevelopment work needed to clear the way for a nonprofit developer to come in and build on the site. The town's trust fund is supported mostly with funds raise through the town's Community Preservation Act.

PLYMOUTH --- Voters at fall town meeting will be considering a warrant article that calls for 35 acres of town-owned land to be preserved as open space, with 10 acres set aside for the development of eight affordable homes by the Plymouth Affordable Housing Trust and a yet-to-be selected nonprofit.

HANOVER --- An official groundbreaking ceremony was held recently to mark the start of an $11.5 million affordable housing development that will result in 66 affordable rental apartments for seniors. The 40B development, called Barstow Village, is being developed by the Archdiocese of Boston's Planning Office for Urban Affairs. It is being built on 6.6 acres of town-owned land next to one of the town's housing authority developments.

SUDBURY --- The town's Zoning Board of Appeals has begun to have public hearings on Westborough-based Moss Development's comprehensive permit (40B) application to build 120 mixed-income rental apartments on the Johnson Farm property.