Housing Headlines

LEE --- A restaurant, hotel, affordable housing and community center are among the potential re-uses for the Eagle Mill, according to the local developer seeking to revitalize the community's oldest factory.

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.

STONEHAM --- This past spring, the Stoneham Housing Authority celebrated the completion of four 100 percent accessible wheelchair units, three of which are now homes to disabled military vets. Another feature is that the development uses passive solar energy for heat. Since the opening, the project has received two awards: it won the 2013 HUD Secretary's Housing and Community Design Award and the architects - Abacus Architects - won the Public Architecture Award from the state's Architectural Access Board and the Boston Society of Architects.

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.

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.

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.