Housing Headlines

AMHERST --- In order to make affordable housing more feasible to developers, the Town of Amherst is looking to use $825,000 in local funds so it can buy three lots and combine it with an abutting town-owned lot to create a parcel that could hold up to 70 apartments. Town Manager Paul Bockelman said combining the two parcels into one project would yield better results as the properties by themselves "are too small for a developer."

BOSTON --- The economic bond bill OK'd by the Legislature includes two measures to increase housing supply - Gov. Charlie Baker's Housing Choice legislation that would lower the percentage of votes needed to approve a variety of local zoning changes to simple majority; and a measure that would require MBTA communities to allow denser housing near at least one station. Baker has until Jan. 16 to sign the economic development bill as is, or send sections back to the Legislature, which would amount to a veto.

WORCESTER --- An education advocate and a member of the Worcester Planning Board have called for the City of Worcester to overhaul its zoning. "We should holistically re-visit our laws to encourage and incentivize neighborhood-oriented growth, including mixed-use projects, affordable housing; local jobs, walkability, transportation and sustainability," wrote Central Mass. Housing Alliance public education director Etel Haxhiaj and planning board member Paul DePalo in the Worcester Telegram.

BOSTON --- The Fenway Community Development Corp. is proposing to build 27 affordable studio, one- and two-bedroom apartments on vacant land at 72 Burbank Street. The site was permitted last year to another developer for 32 mixed-income units but the Fenway CDC is amending that proposal, calling for all apartment to be affordable - seven at or below 30 percent of area median income (AMI), five at 50 percent AMI and 16 at 60 percent AMI. At the first public meeting, reaction was positive with local leaders praising the deep affordability of the apartments.

NEWTON --- Explaining that it hasn't done enough to create housing for people who work in local businesses like restaurants and hotels, Newton is exploring the benefits of creating an affordable housing trust. City Council President Susan Albright said the planning department is preparing recommendations on how a trust might work. According to MHP's Shelly Goehring, over 100 communities have adopted trusts, which use local funds to support affordable housing.

BOSTON --- The Bay State Banner's Yawu Miller has good Q&A with Lee Pelton, current Emerson College president who has been picked to take over The Boston Foundation later this year. Learn Pelton's thoughts on using TBF's grant power to address systemic racism, why he wrote about being racially profiled & how he grew to see Boston as "the center of the universe."