Housing Headlines

PROVINCETOWN --- With funds from the Community Preservation Act, town officials were able to negotiate a deal to purchase 2.53 acres of land from the Cumberland Farms convenience store company for $1.8 million. Four years later, the parcel is ready to be developed into 30 to 40 affordable housing units, the largest affordable housing effort on the Outer Cape. MHP is assisting the town develop a Request for Proposals for the effort.

GROTON --- A 17-unit affordable housing effort which will include units for people cared by the Department of Mental Retardation is being revised, after studies concluded that the parcel contains habitats for the blue-spotted salamander.

HARWICH --- The board of appeals has decided not to reduce the number of affordable units in a 10-unit effort proposed by the Harwich Ecumenical Council for the Homeless. Though the effort has not received final approvals, the board and developers will meet again next week to discuss a final draft proposal for the effort.

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.

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.

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.