Housing Headlines

WAYLAND --- If a 16-unit affordable housing effort on a former Nike missile site is to move forward, voters must approve to spend an additional $600,000 in Community Preservation Act funds to close the funding gap. In addition to the housing units, 12 acres of land will be conserved through the effort. If it stays on track, the project is expected to be completed by the spring of 2008.

WESTON --- For almost two decades, Connie Davis has been a champion of senior housing in Weston. But as of the end of August, she will officially retire from her role as manager of Brook School Apartments.

EASTON --- It was voted down at the Town Meeting in May, but developer Nick Mirrione of Mirrione Realty wants an opportunity to change residents' minds about the cottage community bylaw. Mirrione wants to build seven 1000-square foot starter homes on one acre of land.

AMHERST --- If the town wants to maintain enough affordable housing that it can reject housing projects it does not want, officials should begin negotiations soon with the owners of the Rolling Green Apartments, Town Manager Larry Shaffer said Monday. A restriction stipulating that the 204 units at the 422 Belchertown Road complex must be "affordable" by state standards expires in 2013. (subscription only or paid archive).

DRACUT --- A housing consultant has been hired to help move forward an attempt by the Housing Authority, the town and the Community Preservation Committee to purchase a 38-unit apartment building on Mammoth Road. The town hopes to make the building totally affordable, with funding sources to include rents paid to the authority, as well as Community Preservation money and the town's general fund.

NORTH ANDOVER --- A nonprofit housing corporation expects to finalize a deal today to buy a former nursing home with plans of putting in 42 affordable apartments. The Neighborhood of Affordable Housing (NOAH) will pay $925,000 for the 2.5-acre property at 75 Park St., which includes a two-story house, a parking lot and the vacant building of The Greenery, a nursing home that closed in 2003.