Housing Headlines

MEDFORD --- Medford’s Community Development Board is reviewing a proposal for a new 490-unit, three-building apartment complex at the former Shaw’s supermarket site across from Meadow Glen Mall.

SOMERVILLE --- The Board of Alderman have strengthened Somerville's inclusionary zoning bylaw, voting to increase the percentage of affordable units to 20 percent in projects of 18 units or more and 17.5 percent for projects from eight to 17 units. Previously, only 12.5 percent of units had to be affordable for projects of eight units or more.

TRURO --- Barnstable Superior Court has ruled against the town in its 2014 decision to grant a comprehensive to Habitat for Humanity to create six lots on a 1.78 acre parcel on Rt. 6, siding with an abutter who filed suit claiming she received only a day's notice that the town's Zoning Board of Appeals was voting on the permit.

SALEM --- Reacting to a recent report that the Bay State's rising housing costs are now spilling over into New Hampshire, the Salem News editorializes that it's time to do something about housing if the region wants to get serious about building an educated, adaptable workforce.

DORCHESTER --- More than 100 people filled Codman Square's Great Hall recently to hear how community land trusts like the well-established Dudley Street Neighborhood Initiative could be used to help provide more affordable housing in Mattapan, Dorchester and Roxbury.

WELLFLEET — The town’s effort to add three houses on Old Kings Highway to its meager stock of affordable dwellings has hit another roadblock: four abutters filed a new lawsuit on April 15 appealing the zoning board of appeals’ March 30 decision to grant a comprehensive permit for the project. Habitat for Humanity seeks to build three affordable single-family homes on 2.8 acres designated by the town for that purpose.