Housing Headlines

GRAFTON --- About 30 residents of the North Grafton neighborhood known as Creeper Hill packed a selectmen's meeting to voice concerns over a developer's plan to apply to the town for a Ch. 40B permit so he can build 54 rental units on 2.5 acres. Residents argued the project would exacerbate traffic problems off of Route 140, lower property values, present a danger to children playing in the ball field and harm the semi-rural aesthetic character of the town.

QUINCY --- With one city councilor saying "we don't want our children to leave town," several city councilors say Mayor Thomas Koch must commit to creating more affordable housing in Quincy Center before they’ll support his new plan for downtown revitalization. As it stands now, downtown developers are exempt from the city's inclusionary zoning bylaw that requires that 10 percent of the units in any new housing development be affordable. The Koch Administration worries that adding an affordability component could scare developers away.

ARLINGTON --- With spring town meeting having passed two mixed-use bylaws for portions of Mass. Ave and Broadway, the town is now planning to issue a Request for Proposal seeking a buyer for the former Disabled American Vets building at 1207 Mass. Ave.

WALTHAM --- Using a $600,000 grant from the Boston Foundation, three Boston nonprofits are teaming up to bring a focused set of services to 90 homeless families living in a Waltham Hotel, hoping that a concentrated effort will help these families find housing and a more healthy living situation.

HAMILTON --- Following a similar vote by the town's Affordable Housing Trust, selectmen have voted not to support Harborlight Community Partners' proposal to build 108 affordable apartments for seniors and families near the high school. Instead, the board voted to have the trust develop a list of potential housing sites in town, to acknowledge the need for senior and to support the process that housing proposals to the town go through the planning board first.

PROVINCETOWN --- In an attempt to get their hands around the housing shortage where the median single-family home is $750,000, the median income is $56,000 and parking spaces are listed for $99,000, the town and the Chamber of Commerce brought in nine real estate and affordable housing experts to tour sites and interview residents, officials and business owners so as to determine what can be done to alleviate the problem.