Housing Headlines

CHICOPEE --- Ousted Community Development Department Director Jeanne M. Kidwell is preparing to sue the city for wrongful termination. Mayor Michael D. Bissonnette dismissed Kidwell from her duties on Aug. 1, citing federal audits that found that the city did not properly award and administer $8.4 million in block grant funding. Kidwell says the mayor is using the audits to fire her after she questioned the addition of Thomas Haberlin and Kathleen Lingenberg as part-time directors of economic development and housing respectively.

FITCHBURG --- The city's redevelopment authority has extended the deadline for proposals to develop a downtown site into retail and residential, even as nearby property owners are questioning the plan, noting that a pharmacy company is also interested in the site.

EASTHAMPTON --- A legal review and a third public hearing are the next steps in this community's bid to create an ordinance that would encourage developers to build more affordable housing by allowing them to build more units per acre than is currently allowed.

BOSTON --- The city has selected a developer to fix four foreclosed homes in a hard-hit Dorchester neighborhood and is looking to do more en masse foreclosure rehab work in other Boston neighborhoods.

WORCESTER --- Reporter Matthew Brown does the math on how the slumping real estate market has impacted the value and investment potential of hundreds of three-decker homers in Worcester.

WAREHAM --- The town's zoning board is considering the approval of a 40B proposal by local development company Gatehouse Group, which would create 144 one- to three-bedroom rental units on 15 acres overlooking Union Pond at 2880 Cranberry Highway.