Housing Headlines

NORTON --- With the zoning board's OK of the 176-unit Turtle Crossing 40B development proposal, 10 percent of Norton's housing will be affordable, giving the town control over whether to permit future 40Bs. The project was seen to have little impact on schools since all units are two bedrooms and was viewed as badly needed housing for faculty and staff at Wheaton College.

BOSTON --- A local developer has filed plans to build 1.3 million square feet of apartments, shops, and parking that will deck the Massachusetts Turnpike near Fenway Park. The effort will include 282 apartments, including 28 affordable units in addition to 14 affordable units off-site.

WEST TISBURY --- The town has filed a complaint against a Texas-based mortgage company to safeguard the affordability covenant of a home, after its former owner foreclosed on a sub-prime adjustable mortgage. By the time of foreclosure, the home's mortgage balance was more than two and a half times the original mortgage and more than twice the maximum resale price allowed in the property deed's affordable housing covenant.

LAKEVILLE --- The town is weighing a request by developer Ed Fish to waive the affordable housing requirement during Phase 1 of the 386-unit LeBaron Hills Country Club senior housing development. Citing a downturn in the real estate market, the developer has asked to build only market-rate units during the initial 62-unit phase.

WAYLAND --- After years of planning, the former Nike missile site in North Wayland will be turned into 16 new townhouses for first-time homebuyers in a project that will use $1.77 million in state funds. Eleven units will be priced for households at 80 percent of median and five for households at 100 percent of median.

NORWELL --- The state's highest court upheld Norwell's decision to reject a developer's request to tear down a modest-sized home to build one three times its size in its place. The decision could give Massachusetts communities more power to limit the construction of large and costly homes.