Source: North Shore Association of Realtors
2.20.19
A new affordable housing project being eyed for a 5-acre plot of vacant land at 108 Sohier Road will receive $250,000 in Community Preservation Act funding.
The development, called Anchor Point, is a project established by Harborlight Community Partners, a non-profit devoted to providing affordable housing on the North Shore.
“The project offers a lot of advantages and benefits, and fulfills a deep need in Beverly,” said Marilyn McCrory, chairman of Beverly’s community preservation committee (CPC).
The CPC voted unanimously to recommend funding for the project, and the Beverly City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to green light that funding.
“I think we all agreed it was a very strong project in the housing category,” McCrory said. “All of the units that Harborlight is proposing to build will be affordable. It’s a large number of new units, which we haven’t seen a lot of coming before either the community preservation committee or the city.”
In addition to money from the CPC, the project will leverage a tremendous amount of funding from other sources, to the tune of $18 million.
“We asked for early approval of the funding so that Harborlight could meet a state funding grant application deadline,” McCrory explained.
The CPC allocation will help fund the first phase of the Anchor Point project, which will include 38 two- and three-bedroom affordable housing units. A second phase would build 37 apartments, for a total of 75.
More on this housing project is available at the Beverly Citizen.
The City Council previously voted to create a special 40R Smart Growth Zoning Overlay District for the area, which makes the city eligible for state payments based on the number of units and new students that would move into the district.
The housing would be for families earning at or below 60 percent of the area median income, which in 2018 was $64,680 for a family of four. Twenty percent of the units would be set aside for families coming out of homelessness.