Housing Headlines

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.

WESTFORD --- Six years after another company first proposed to build multi-family housing on Littleton Road, construction has finally begun on a 200-unit housing complex. Construction workers broke ground on July 15 at the 16 Littleton Road site. The property is being developed with a Ch. 40B comprehensive permit awarded by the town to Lowell-based Princeton Properties and Boston-based Guggenheim Real Estate. Forty of the units will be affordable in this $35 million project. In addition to a 40B permit, the town supported the development with $150,000 from its affordable housing trust fund.

NORWOOD --- With the approval of a 262-unit 40B apartment complex at Upland Woods, Norwood is one step closer toward reaching its 10 percent affordable housing goal. Norwood needs approximately 539 to meet that goal, a total that will be almost cut in half when the state recognizes the town's recent approval of a permit for the 262-unit Upland Woods. In addition, selectmen recently approved the first of the two 40R projects before the town, Plimpton Press, which if it goes forward would add 270 more units to the town's subsidized housing inventory.

MILTON --- Despite previous clashes with the town over its denial of his plan to build three homes on 12 acres, developer Todd Hamilton is confident that his new proposal for the site - 77 townhouses - will move quickly through the town's Ch. 40B process. Hamilton's previous attempt to seek a special permit through the plannng board resulted in him accusing longtime planning board chair Alex Whiteside of having a conflict of interest and then running against and losing to the five-term planning board member this past spring.

WILLIAMSTOWN --- Almost two years after floodwaters sparked by Hurricane Irene destroyed more than 200 residences in the Spruces Mobile Home Park, selectmen voted last month to buy the property, which would be the first step toward the town finding new, safer affordable homes for the 66 families that still live there. Town meeting must still OK the $600,000 purchase as the town continues to pursue several sites in town for affordable housing development.