Housing Headlines

HYANNIS --- Despite urgings from the police chief and a state senator to close or reduce beds at a Hyannis homeless shelter, Housing Assistance Corp. Executive Director Ric Presbrey told a downtown organization that his board has voted not to reduce the number of beds unless the need for homeless shelter beds lessens.

GREAT BARRINGTON --- RiverSchool Development LLC recently announced that they will soon launch a $19 million redevelopment project to convert the former Searles-Bryant school facility into a mixed-use development comprised of office, living, and retail spaces. The developers plan to construct 40 condominium units, with 16 units designated as affordable.

WESTPORT --- Town Meeting passed over an article proposing to end the Community Preservation Act tax surcharge and later amended their 2005 inclusionary zoning bylaw to give developers who build more than 10 units the option to give cash or land to the town in lieu of including affordable units in their development.

SPRINGFIELD - The city's latest auction of tax title properties resulted in the sale of 34 houses, buildings and lots and generated $253,890 in revenue. The salesranged from a house on Commonwealth Avenue that sold for the top price at $67,200, to small lots on Colonial Avenue and Northampton Avenue that sold for $105 each.

BELMONT --- About 50 residents appeared at a recent selectman's meeting to urge the town to continue to fight a Pennsylvania company's plan to build 299 units in the northeast corner of town known as the 'Uplands." Back in April, the Department of Environmental Protection gave indications that the proposal does not violate enviromental standards and this is likely to be the basis of a final ruling that will deny the appeals of local activists and local boards, who have been arguing that the project would damage the environment, ruin trees and cause flooding.

NEWTON --- A plan to redevelop a Rt. 9 Chestnut Hill property that has been vacant since a fire several years ago has raised the ire of nearby Brookline residents who fear a back road leading to the site will bring traffic to their neighborhood. Newton-based New England Development hopes to build a one-story retail building along Route 9, an eight-story residential building behind it and two retail/office buildings behind that.