Housing Headlines

MIDDLEBORO --- With the town expected to get a new commuter rail station as part of the South Coast Rail project, selectmen and planning board members recently debated the pros and cons of creating a special zoning district which would allow multifamily housing near transit. Representatives from the Southeastern Regional Planning & Economic Development District (SRPEDD) attended the meeting and explained Ch. 40R, one of the state's tools to encourage mixed-income housing near transit.

In its Sunday lead editorial, the Boston Globe urges Newton and communities like it to undo blanket zoning regulations that have outlawed multi-family zoning and adopt new zoning codes that would address racial and economic disparities and lay the groundwork for a more inclusive future.

Writing for the Boston Sunday Globe Ideas section, freelance writer Noah Y. Kim explores the contradiction of Boston area urban and suburban progressives calling for racial justice while their communities often defeat zoning measures that would allow more affordable housing in their communities. "There is an obvious contradiction between supporting social justice movements and trying to maintain the segregated system behind almost every modern racial disparity," Kim writes in exploring the contrasting dialogue in places like Cambridge, Newton and Hamilton.

TRURO --- The state's temporary ban on evictions due to the coronavirus is the only thing keeping approximately 20 year-round tenants housed at the Truro Motor Inn, which lost its license earlier this summer when the owner failed to comply with the town's repeated requests that the property comply with building and septic codes.

NEWTON --- A group of neighbors has filed a lawsuit against he Newton Zoning Board of Appeals' approval of a Ch. 40B comprehensive permit for a 234-unit mixed-use project on a stretch of Washington Street that is near the Mass. Pike, the commuter rail and bus routes to Boston. Banker & Tradesman reported that the suit - filed by three abutters - claimis “the project imposes a catastrophic increase in bulk and height to the existing residential properties directly abutting the project site.”

CAMBRIDGE --- The City of Cambridge has reached an agreement with Spaulding Hospital to create a city-funded emergency homeless shelter in the east wing of the hospital's Cambridge Street facility. The new temporary 57-bed shelter will replace the one currently located at the War Memorial Recreational Center, which was set up shortly after the COVID-19 health emergency.