Housing Headlines

NEWBURY --- Residents packed a meeting room recently to protest a developer's plans to seek a Ch. 40B permit to build 24 for-sale homes - six affordable - on a 15.5 acre site at the end of Pearson Drive. The six affordable homes would list for between $180,000 to $224,000, with market-rate homes selling for $450,000 to $475,000.

LOWELL --- Residents at the 230-unit Perkins Park apartment complex have been told they have to move out within a year following the $61.5 million sale of the rehabilitated mill complex to UMass Lowell, which will convert the apartments into student dorms.

BROCKTON --- Following a rash of fires, fights and overdoses, city officials recently moved in and bulldozed Brockton's Tent City, a long-running camp for the homeless on land owned by the CSX rail company. City officials estimated that 75 to 80 people were living in 16 camp sites at the time of the demolition.

HAMILTON --- The town's zoning board of appeals has granted a Ch. 40B permit to Habitat for Humanity, allowing it to build two affordable for-sale homes on a single-family lot. Previously, the town's affordable housing trust provided $250,000 to help Habitat purchase the property.

YARMOUTH --- The town's efforts to create zoning that would encourage redevelopment of some of its Rt. 28 motel sites ran into stiff opposition recently as 130 residents packed a public meeting to voice their displeasure at a proposal by Dakota Partners to build 120 apartments on the site of the former Cavalier Motor Lodge and Bass River Motel.

WEST TISBURY --- Members of the long-established Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC) and the more recently established All-Island Planning Board (AIPB), met recently to discuss how the six Island towns can work together to address Island-wide issues. The agenda was dominated by affordable housing and an MVC-commissioned study that will produce a housing plan for all six towns.