Housing Headlines

WORCESTER --- The city council has OK'd new building codes that will require future residential and commercial construction to adhere to higher energy-efficiency practices. The new codes, signed into law by Gov. Patrick in 2008, give communities the local option to adopt more stringent energy-efficient codes.

SPRINGFIELD --- The Urban Land Institute's unveiling of its recommendations as to how Springfield should develop the Connecticut River waterfront near the Basketball Hall of Fame triggered some lively reader feedback, some of it typical but some of it thoughtful as to where the city should focus its resources.

WAREHAM --- By a five-vote margin, Town Meeting have stuck with their decision of six months ago, again defeating a plan to develop affordable housing for senior citizens on town-owned property in West Wareham.

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.

MARLBOROUGH --- Developer Bob Moss told city council recently that he was surprised by the negative public reaction to a proposed zoning change that would allow him to build 70 houses on lots as small as 8,000 square feet, thereby preserving at least half of the 88-acre parcel as open space. Current zoning for developments over 50 acres requires that lots be no smaller than 15,000 feet.

CHELMSFORD --- After two-and-a-half hours of questions and debate, Town Meeting last week overwhelmingly voted to partially fund a proposed home for eight veterans on a waiting list for affordable housing. The town awarded $400,000 in community preservation funds to build a duplex at 9 Manahan St., off Chelmsford Street, that will be managed by the Chelmsford Housing Authority. The CPA money would be matched by nearly $1 million in state and federal funding to make the project a reality.