Housing Headlines

NEWTON --- Residents say an 80-unit mixed-use, mixed-income development plan for a city-owned parcel near the commuter rail in the city's Newtonville section is too big.

BROCKTON --- Windover Construction and Peabody Properties are partnering with two nonprofits - Father Bill's & MainSpring and Affordable Housing and Services Collaborative of Braintree - to do a $7 million conversion of a federal building into 14 units of housing for veterans. The brick building is on the campus of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

FITCHBURG --- Officials say an apartment house fire that has left seven men homeless illustrates the difficulties the city has in regulating landlords who avoid the bureaucratic process involved in renting their properties to low-income residents.

PLYMOUTH --- Ten years after obtaining a copper and brass factory site that had been cleaned up by the Plymouth Redevelopment Authority, Weymouth-based developer John Iredale finally came before the Zoning Board of Appeals to begin the process of asking for a special permit that would allow him to develop 42 mixed-income apartments.

LUNENBURG --- The town's zoning board of appeals has granted a Ch. 40B comprehensive permit to developer Gary Lorden's plan to build 120 mixed-income apartment on 41 acres near Whalom Lake.

SHREWSBURY --- Residents and town officials were on hand recently as state officials began their review of two sites that have been proposed for Ch. 40B housing developments totaling 450 units.