Housing Headlines

PLAINVILLE --- Selectmen have made public plans that Rhode Island-based Picerne Real Estate Group has approached the town about building 240 rental apartments of Rt. 1 through the state's Locial Initiative Program. Twenty-fiver percent of the apartments would be affordable.

DANVERS --- By unanimous vote, selectmen voted recently to transfer an abandoned single-family home seized by the town for back taxes to the Danvers Affordable Housing Trust, which will use funds it received from the Danvers State Hospital development to pay the town $40,000 in back taxes and then find a developer to rebuild the property into a single-family home that will be sold at an affordable price.

AMHERST --- Even though Rolling Green Apartments has prepaid a mortgage that could end an affordability mandate, the company may be obligated to set aside a portion of its 204 units for low-income residents, 40 who have been paying rent with Section 8 vouchers.

WESTFORD --- Selectmen have delayed their decision on whether to support a town meeting warrant that would designate 3.2 acres of a 40-acre town site for affordable housing. Residents near the so-called Edwards Parcel are circulating a petition against the town's efforts to explore the feasibility of developing 25 units of affordable housing on the site.

QUINCY --- By a 9-0 vote, city councilors OK'd a special permit to allow for a 6-story, 180-unit apartment building to rise up over Burgin Parkway near the Quincy Adams T station, even as they voiced strong concerns about making traffic in this area even worse. In response to councilor concerns, the developers, Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, agreed to pay $100,000 toward the cost of building a high-visibility crosswalk on Burgin Parkway. The developers opted out of incorporating affordable units into the building and will instead pay a $180,000 fee to the Quincy Affordable Housing Trust Fund.

ASHLAND --- In the past decade the town has spent $10 million buying land to save for special purposes including natural preservation and affordable housing, but local officials have neglected to take steps necessary to officially protect those sites. The land, which totals about 67 acres not including 118 acres at Warren Woods, was purchased with money from the Community Preservation Act.