Housing Headlines

HOPKINTON --- After more than a year of negotiations and delays, developer Roy MacDowell Jr. has been granted a special permit to develop the 730-acre Weston Nursuries site into 940 housing units. Known as Legacy Farms, plans call for condos, market-rate and affordable rental apartments and up to 50 single-family homes. The project also includes 450,000 square feet of commercial space, 500 acres of open space, 77 acres for Weston Nurseries, and 40 acres for playing fields and town uses.

PLYMOUTH --- One month before its special permit was to expire, the plannng board granted A.D. Makepeace a two-year extension on River Run, a mixed-use village project that is expected to include a full-service YMCA, retail and office space, an assisted living facility, approximately 1,175 homes in a variety of styles, a water treatment plant and 1,600 acres of open space.

WORCESTER --- Church officials are considering converting the former Ascension Church on Vernon Hill into 35 units of affordable housing for seniors. An application for federal grant money to assist with construction costs will be submitted sometime next month.

FITCHBURG --- The state college continues its effort to connect its campus with the downtown by demolishing or rehabilitating buildings. A commercial building has been torn down, an apartment building is next and another apartment building has been turned into office space for the school's exercise and sports programs.

ARLINGTON --- In an attempt to end a stalemate over how much money should be paid to buy out of the town's affordable housing requirement, the new developer of the former Symmes Hospital site has said he would abandon the 115-unit townhouse proposal and would instead build 200 rental apartments.

FALL RIVER --- There is no change in the city's decision to pull back $1.5 million in city HOME funds to support the downtown YMCA's $11 million plan to renovate its top two floors into 42 units of single-room housing for working adults with incomes of $18,000 to $30,000 per year. "We're doing all we can to breathe life into the city's downtown and waterfront and (this project) is not going in the direction that's in the city's best interests," said Mayor Will Flanagan, two months after he reversed a decision by the previous mayor to support the project.