GA Blog

5.14.10 Ipswich Powderhouse Development Helps Close in on Chapter 40B

According to the Ipswich Chronicle, Powderhouse Village, the 48-unit affordable housing complex to be built on County Road by the YMCA, will raise Ipswich’s affordable housing units to 492 – making 9.1% of Ipswich’s housing stock affordable as defined by Chapter 40B.

Chapter 40B requires that all cities/towns have at least 10% of its housing stock to qualify as affordable for the town to become exempt from the state’s 40B affordable housing bylaw which allows for developers to bypass a community’s zoning laws as long as the project contains a sufficient amount of affordable housing, which is determined by a formula based on the community’s median income.

Tom Bentley, the housing coordinator in the Planning Department, says that to be counted as affordable, a rental housing unit must have a deed restriction that says the rent cannot be raised above a certain limit.

For more on the Powerhouse Village development, click here.

5.11.10 Brandy Brow Road Development in Haverhill

The Eagle Tribune reported that a proposed housing project on Brandy Brow Road in Haverhill is coming to a head.  City planners are frustrated by the 2 years of delays by the developers, local contractor Richard Early Jr. and his partner John Serratore.  Neighbors are worried that their quiet, rural corner of the city (near the Merrimac town line) will be altered by more houses and traffic.  And Environmentalists are concerned about the effect new homes and added roads will have on nearby wetlands which feed Haverhill's drinking water supply.

Brandy Brow Road connects Route 110 to Route 108, but the road is blocked by two metal gates. The city erected the gates 13 years ago to prevent illegal dumping and people from partying in woods off Brandy Brow Road.  If the housing development is approved, Brandy Brow Road would be improved and the gates opened to traffic, city officials said.

Read the entire Eagle Tribune article.

5.10.10 Topsfield Voters Shoot Down Property Tax Override

The Tri-Town Transcript reported that in a rare move, Topfield voters frustrated over the status quo recently voted to deny a temporary $93,500 property tax override and elected a write-in Selectman candidate (Eldon Goodhue) over incumbent Karen Dowthrough.  This resulted from a groundswell of support from a grassroots campaign started just a week before elections.

Read the entire Tri-Town Transcript article.

5.7.10 Pleasant Street Marblehead Improvement

According to the Marblehead Reporter, Massachusetts awarded Marblehead $400,000 in state transportation funds to support improvements to the Route 114/Pleasant Street corridor from Village Street to Smith Street in Marblehead.  The project is focused on improving pedestrian safety along a busy section of Pleasant Street, including roadway realignment, new sidewalks and traffic-signal modifications, wheelchair ramps and crosswalks along with pedestrian-crossing warning markings and signs.

Read the entire Marblehead Reporter article.

5.6.10 Affordable Housing in West Gloucester

According to the Cape Ann Beacon, the nonprofit Caleb Foundation will be taking on the creation of 34 new units of affordable rental housing for families on what was once the site of the LePage’s glue factory on the banks of the Annisquam River in West Gloucester.  The LePage Apartments at Pond View Village, when complete, will offer social service coordination to the residents, as well as access to a computer center and community room. LePage Apartments will be partially solar-powered.

The glue company, started in 1876, manufactured glue from fish waste and grew to be an internationally-known adhesive brand.  The Caleb Foundation and The Caleb Group, based in Swampscott, supports preserving old buildings, and provides services and/or operates nearly 2,000 units of affordable housing in four New England states.

The mill, which had one of the first steam engines in the country, was closed in 1955 and, with the exception of it being used as a set location during the filming of Jumanji in 1995, had mostly been vacant. Now partially solar-powered, the property has a patio in the back that overlooks the Great Works River, offers a walking path along the river to residents for fishing and recreation and is easy walking for elderly residents to town services and local shops.

The Caleb Foundation owns or manages nearly 1,200 units of affordable housing at 22 locations in Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut and manages about 80% of the units owned. The Caleb Foundation, a non-profit organization, has created and maintained homes for low-income residents since 1992. Its affiliate, The Caleb Group, was created to provide the services and resources to help women, men and children achieve self-sufficiency.

Read the entire Cape Ann Beacon article.

5.3.10 Salem Seeks “Green Community” Designation

The Salem Gazette reported that Salem, MA is looking to seek the Commonwealth’s “Green Community” designation, which could provide access to $10 million reserved for eco-friendly communities that adopt at least five core criteria specified by the Department of Energy Resources:

1. Purchasing only fuel-efficient vehicles
2. Adopting an expedited permit application process for energy facilities
3. Establishing a benchmark for energy use and reducing that number by 20% within 5 years
4. Offering siting considerations for energy manufacturing or research facilities
5. Adopting a new Board of Building Regulations and Standards Stretch Code.

The so-called stretch code requirement –- a stricter building code for energy conservation –- may prove to be the most challenging for any municipality undertaking the process to become a Green Community.  Typically, Massachusetts building codes are established at the state level and there’s no ability for a local jurisdiction to supersede that. But in this case, the state is allowing local adoption of a stricter building code.

No city/town has yet earned the “Green Community” designation.

Read the entire Salem Gazette article.