| Wary of a backlash at an upcoming town meeting, Burlington officials approved a plan to comply with the MBTA Communities law by rezoning four areas for multifamily development that already include large housing complexes.
A divided Planning Board voted 3-2 last week in favor of creating five new overlay districts totaling 68 acres, four of which already include apartments and condominiums.
“We need this to pass Town Meeting and we need to make this as easy and palatable as we can so that it passes,” Board Chair Barbara L’Heureux said.
L’Heureux’s explanation is becoming a familiar refrain in many communities worried about failing to secure compliance to the law, which would come with the risk of lawsuits from the state attorney general and being cut off from 13 important state grant programs.
What else is on tap today?
- T’s Electric Trains Coming? Electrification of the MBTA’s commuter rail lines has been a long-held dream for developers, riders and transit advocates, alike. And Dorchester and Mattapan residents could be first in line for a preview of what it might look like.
- BXP in Partial Sale: Boston Properties completed its partial sale of a Kendall Square life science project that values the two-building development at over $2,000 per square foot.
- Compass Settles: The real estate brokerage will pay $57.5 million as part of a proposed settlement to resolve lawsuits over real estate commissions, the company said in a regulatory filing Friday.
- The Pryde Wins: A Dorchester LGBTQ+ senior housing development that saw its financing package upended by national politics appears to have come out on top, in the end.
Show me the data!
Here’s who’s leading the pack among Barnstable County mortgage lenders.
What did I miss?
Here’s what you might have missed in Sunday’s newsletter. Not a B&T subscriber? Fix that here.
- Zoning changes designed to revitalize downtown Hyannis got immediate traction from developers proposing multifamily housing. But a leadership change on the Barnstable Town Council is driving fears of a rollback.
- Many real estate agents across Massachusetts are already altering how they interact with home buyers and sellers in the wake of the surprise decision by the National Association of Realtors to settle pending lawsuits over agent commissions.
- Money for a sewer and water connection isn’t often headline news – unless it means unlocking 6,000 long-anticipated housing units near a commuter rail station.
