Housing Headlines

CHICOPEE --- A state financing agency has committed over $3 million in financing to support the Valley Opportunity Council Inc. purchase and renovation of its office in the former Mt. Carmel School. The agency, MassDevelopment also approved $335,000 from its Brownfield Redevelopment Fund to Ashford Place Winn II LLC to fund the cleanup of a site that will serve as a parking lot for a new senior housing development.

ALLSTON --- Community groups from Allston and Brighton met recently to discuss strategies on how to preserve some 350 affordable housing units whose federal use restrictions are set to expire in the next few years.

ANDOVER --- The town's affordable housing stock has fallen below the 10 percent level mandated by the state because numerous units built more than a decade ago and once on the books as affordable can now be rented at market rates.

NORFOLK --- A Norfolk resident who says officials have conspired to keep him from developing his property is threatening to sue the town for millions of dollars.

BOSTON --- The Asian Community Development Corp. and the New Boston Fund are close to signing a lease agreement with the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority that would create 324 units of housing in Chinatown. Of the units, half of them would be affordable condos and rentals. Altogether, the effort will double Chinatown's current owner-occupancy rate.

Pepperell --- Selectmen and residents have expressed initial approval of a developer's proposal to build a 56-unit "friendly 40B" on 17.5 acres of land in Pepperell. According to selectmen, the developer Etchstone Properties, Inc., has not only incorporated town input in the effort, but will also provide the town with a much-sought resource -- a third well site.