Cottages in the Woods Get Good News from ZBA

In a move approved by the board, the development on Boston Road received permission to get occupancy permits for units ready for residents prior to the completion of the entire project.

  Cottages in the Woods, an affordable housing development just off Exit 32 on Boston Road across from Coldwell Banker, received a boost from the Zoning Board of Appeals on Wednesday night. The development was given an amendment to their comprehensive permit that would allow individual occupancy permits to be given for each unit on a unit by unit basis. Before the decision, which passed without any opposition, occupancy permits would not have been allowed prior to the total completion of the development. While Cottages in the Woods attorney Douglas Deschenes indicated that two occupants are set to move in and could do so as early as Friday barring any other pending issues, the project had been more difficult than expected due to disputes …

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You Asked, Patch Answers

What's Going on With Cottages in the Woods?

Welcome to this week's "You Asked, Patch Answers," where we answer questions about things in town from Westford Patch readers. If you have a question, e-mail us at westford@patch.com.

Two new developments adjacent to Exit 32 have caught the eye of Boston Road motorists recently and today's Patch Answers column answers a question on one of those developments. No, not Cornerstone. Today's question comes from a reader wondering about the Cottages in the Woods development across the street from Coldwell Banker, specifically... "What's going on with Cottages in the Woods? It looks abandoned." To that reader, we got the answer from Wescon president David Guthrie, whose company is overseeing the project. According to Guthrie, the delay in construction came from two major factors: the economy and with National Grid's abutting infastructure, particularly easements related to nearby electrical poles and natural gas hookups…

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Andrew Sylvia

9:19 pm on Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Hi Kathleen, I believe we mentioned this elsewhere, but just to save some time, all 40B lotteries are done jointly under the supervision of two Affordable Housing Authorities, with one doing the lottery and one doing the paperwork with people winning the lotteries. My understanding on this is to avoid any perception of bias in the lotteries for Housing Authorities trying to pick and choose who …   more ›