Housing Headlines

BOSTON --- Some Jamaica Plain residents have voiced frustration that the co-developers of the Blessed Sacrament Church campus did not consult with the community on changes to the master plan for the campus redevelopment. Four buildings have already been redeveloped and new plans for the final two buildings include less affordable units than what was in the master plan.

BOSTON --- The BRA recently approved a plan to add 322 residential units with 15,000 square feet of retail space and a community center in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston. Of the 322 units, 36 will be designated as affordable. The developer predicts that this project will create 600 construction jobs with a groundbreaking planned for spring 2013.

WORCESTER - A federal report on the city's housing programs says city officials failed to adequately oversee how millions of dollars in grant funds have been used by the city's community development corporations and that CDCs improperly spent federal money.

BOSTON --- Tenants have organized to try to keep Rutland Housing affordable. The federal contract requirng that the South End housing project be affordable has expired and the owners are keeping their options open. Rutland is is one of more than 900 such privately owned, low-income developments across Massachusetts, incorporated in the '70s and '80s as a short-term, cost-effective solution for public housing. Today, they are ticking time bombs in gentrifying neighborhoods like the South End, as the low-income contracts run out one by one.

EASTON --- Even though the town can deny Ch. 40B comprehensive permit applications for two years after approving Ames Shovel Works, selectman gave preliminary support to developer Amos Eisnerberg's plan to build 38 rental units. Eisnerberg is seeking to do a "friendly" 40B and must gain approval from the zoning board of appeals.

HINGHAM --- The Zoning Board of Appeals has indicated that it will continue to fight the state over whether 10 percent of the town's housing stock is affordable while it simultaneously considers a Ch. 40B proposal by Avalon Bay to develop 177 rental units. The town maintains that all 986 units at the Linden Ponds development are affordable whereas the state says only 25 percent are affordable. The difference is crucial because if the town's position is upheld on appeal, it could deny Avalon Bay its request for a comprehensive permit.