Boston developer Trinity Financial proposed a complete redevelopment of its New Orchard Hills Estates affordable housing complex in Oxford, demolishing and rebuilding 215 existing affordable apartments and replacing them with updated units.
In a second phase, the developer would like to build 165 additional mixed-income units.
The friendly 40B project would be completed in multiple phases, with 114 units being demolished and rebuilt in phase 1A and 111 units in phase 1B. Trinity would work with residents on relocation during construction, moving some to vacant apartments at the site and employing a relocation service provider to relocate the remainder of the residents.
When phase one is complete, Trinity proposes expanding the site with 165 additional units for mixed-income tenants. The units, most available and affordable to tenants earning 60% of area median income or below, will not be distinguishable by their income restriction, Jonathan Brahmer, Trinity Financial vice president of development, said to WBJ on Tuesday.
The company plans to make the development more community-oriented with sidewalks and improved amenity spaces. Buildings will be oriented with stoops facing the street and sidewalk, with streets designed to slow traffic and make the development safer for pedestrians. Currently, the development lacks sidewalks, and buildings are oriented to parking lots.
The project is expected to cost $250 million and will involve roadwork and a $20-million improvement to an onsite waste-treatment facility. The Town has submitted an application for a MassWorks grant to help with roadwork and the waste treatment plant.
Representatives from Trinity Financial, Boston architecture firm, ICON architecture and others involved in the project appeared before the Oxford Zoning Board of Appeals on Thursday. The Board approved a motion to have the Town engage peer review of our general civil, stormwater, and the traffic study, and to continue the meeting until Thursday July 13 for that peer review to come back, according to Brahmer.
Trinity Financial is working with the Worcester Housing Authority on a similar project to redevelop the Curtis Apartments in Worcester’s Great Brook Valley neighborhood.Â
