GA Blog: Peabody

3.10.10 Peabody spends $775K to keep Lynnfield Street lot as Open Space

The Peabody/Lynnfield Weekly News reports that the Peabody City Council approved the purchase of 3.9 acres of land at 182 Lynnfield Street with funding through the Community Preservation Act.

The move cost $775,000; Peabody plans to use the land for passive recreation, such as walking and picnicking, informal sporting games and perhaps community gardens. Most of the site is open grasslands ~ one corner is a wetland resource area.

Peabody was one of the first communities to opt into the CPA program, which creates a fund to preserve open space, restore historic sites and create affordable housing. In 2001, voters approved a 1% surcharge on property taxes to feed the fund, which up until 2008, was matched dollar for dollar by the state (mainly through fees on real estate transactions).

Read the entire Peabody/Lynnfield Weekly News article.

3.16.09 Cleanup of Peabody Ponds

According to The Daily Item, City of Peabody planners are busy drafting a public bid document to hire an engineering consultant for the cleanup of Crystal Lake and its neighbor Elginwood Pond.  They will also be preparing an application for the Community Preservation Act money to qualify for federal stimulus funds. Assistant Planning Director Blair Haney who heads the project for the city stated that $800,000 in state grants has gone toward designing a system to mitigate that situation.  Friends of Peabody Lakes have also been helpful in educating residents about environmentally friendly lawn solutions and getting students involved with the project. Haney will begin the process for CPA money, modify existing project permits that restrict disposal of dredged material to either the city's landfill or the golf course and do whatever possible to get the project shovel ready so to qualify for federal stimulus money.

Read the entire Daily Item article.

3.8.09 SoftSecond Loans Enhanced for Foreclosed Properties in Hardest Hit Areas

The Massachusetts Housing Partnership recently announced that beginning April 1, 2009, a new enhanced version of SoftSecond can be used by qualified homebuyers looking to purchase foreclosed condominiums, single-family, two-family and three-family homes in neighborhoods hardest-hit by foreclosure. This new enhanced version waives SoftSecond’s first-time homebuyer requirement and raises the household income limit to under 120% of area median in designated census tracts in 39 communities that are eligible for federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) funding, including Billerica, Chelsea, Dracut, Haverhill, Lawrence, Lowell, Lynn, Methuen, Peabody, Revere, Salem, Saugus and Somerville.

Grant awards will range from up to $20,000 for single-family homes and up to $40,000 for two- and three-family homes in neighborhoods that are eligible for NSP rehabilitation grants.  SoftSecond can also be used in combination with any rehabilitation financing offered by lenders.

For more information, click on this link and also this link.

4.21.08 5 North Shore Development Projects Aimed at Boosting Economy

The Salem News reports that there are 5 major development projects in the works in the North Shore aimed at boosting the local economy:

1. $106 million Salem court construction
2. Northshore Mall expansion in Peabody
3. $15 million Bridge Street bypass road in Salem
4. Health Care Expansions in Danvers & Peabody
5. Beverly waterfront transformation

Read the entire Salem News article.

11.6.07 Affordable Housing in the North Shore

According to the Salem News, here is a breakdown of affordable housing percentages in many of the North Shore Communities:

Beverly 11.5%
Boxford 0.7%
Danvers 10.4%
Hamilton 3.3%
Ipswich 8.2%
Manchester 4.7%
Marblehead 3.8%
Middleton 4.2%
Peabody 10.4%
Salem 13.2%
Swampscott 3.6%
Topsfield 5.4%
Wenham 8.9%

Read the entire Salem News article

9.20.07 September 20, 2007 Legislative Breakfast

This morning, NSAR sponsored its first Legislative Breakfast in 2007, attending by State Representative Theodore Speliotis (D-13th Essex), State Representative Joyce Spiliotis (D-12th Essex), Representative John Keenan (D-7th Essex), and Beth Murray, Aide to Senator Frederick Berry.

MAR General Counsel and Government Affairs Director, Steve Ryan, presented the five legislative topics on the agenda and gave the legislators the Realtor® position on each issue.

These issues included:

1. Transfer Taxes. Realtors® oppose real estate transfer taxes as bad tax policy for several reasons including: a community wide responsibility should be paid for by the entire community; a transfer tax is inequitable and discriminatory as it singles out a small segment of the population [specifically home buyers & sellers] to pay for a community wide need; a transfer tax is exclusionary because it would increase the cost of home ownership; a transfer tax would be an unstable source of revenue due to the instability of the real estate market; a transfer tax would subvert the Proposition 2 ½ override process; the state legislature has already given cities and towns many equitable tools to create affordable and workforce housing through passage of Community Preservation Act, Chapter 40B, and Chapter 40R and 40S.

2. An Act Protecting Children from Poisoning. Proposed legislation SB. 1230 would (a) require lead inspections on all sales of property, instead of at the buyer’s option; (b) require owners and sellers of property to abate lead in soil and tap water; and (c) require letters of compliance for rental units to be renewed every two years, regardless of whether children reside in the unit, or whenever there is a change in occupancy, if that is earlier.

3. An Act Providing Information to Real Estate Buyers. Proposed legislation H. 323, S. 201 is a little unclear but seems to suggest that a homeowner would be expected to review the databases of nearly a dozen different governmental agencies and then create some type of report or hire and pay someone to do it for them. It is not clear how many millions of dollars this could cost Massachusetts homeowners every year or that buyers and sellers could review this data and provide an accurate assessment of what implications, if any, information on one of these databases would have on a home.

4. An Act Relative to the Disclosure of Wetlands on Property. Proposed legislation H. 767 seeks to require that a real estate broker disclose to prospective buyers that a property to be sold may be in its entirety, or in part a wetland as defined in Chapter 131 of the General Laws of or any other regulation or local by-law of the municipality where the property is located. It is the Realtor® position that however well intentioned this proposal may be, it would create an impossible standard for real estate licensees to meet and generate confusion for consumers.

5. An Act Relative to Smart Growth Housing Trust Fund (S. 132) and An Act Relative to Financing the Smart Growth Housing Trust (H. 160). Realtors® support both these bills, as it would create a steady stream of revenue to support the continued success of 40R Smart Growth districts.