As I have pointed out on this blog many times and at a recent meeting of the Chandler Business Association, look at the Chevalier Building on Water Street. I believe this has a 25% "affordable" component, reminds me of the Royal Worcester on Grand Street-a great project which has a similar "affordable" component.
The developer uses these grant monies for the portion of the portion of the project dedicated for "affordable" to make the numbers work. These are great projects and make the City of Worcester a better place to live. On the other hand projects like the Hadley, 9 May Street or Southgate Place which have 100% affordable are not. Imagine being turned around to rent a unit at any of these places because you make too much money?
We need to put a limit on any of these projects in the future in order to received any funding from the City of Worcester. A 25% limit per project seems very fair to me. If you want to do a project that is 100% affordable, there is nothing anyone can do to stop you. Just the City of Worcester should not give any tax-payer assistance.
Same Time Next Year
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It’s been nearly a year since I wrote about the problems that come from
having 11 bosses who are not on the same page about anything, as well as
suggestion...
4 months ago
2 comments:
I see affordable housing projects in the suburbs that are stand alone single family homes. They can be spotted from the highways because the houses are so close together, but is still less dense than say 44 apts on May St set on an acre or so with about zilch for parking.
One of these homes I know of has no resale restrictions on it either, the buyer can sell it to anyone at any price. That to me says the place was bought with a conventional, no Home Funds type mortage. Often you will hear of new local police and fire employees with a couple of kids getting into these places because they can meet the income guidelines as the bride is home w/kids and not on a payroll.
One I know of, the developer built out a small cul de sac which nicely accomodated three 1800 ft colonials and because he wanted to put a forth house there but couldnt get a variance, he built one smaller 40b (low income and zoning exempt) 1400 ft colonial on about 40-45 ft of frontage and sold it to a soldier from a local military installation. This is nice Bawstin Burb, too and frankly the smaller amt. of frontage doesnt really "rock the boat too much" except 45 ft of frontage results in littel on street parking, esp. when you have a driveway that uses up 12-14 ft of that frontage.
If Kerry takes Secetary of State will Deval pick Scott Brown as his temporary replacement?
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