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Billerica divided on development plans
By Alice Giordano, Globe Correspondent, 11/19/2000
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Residents talk about how good or bad the food is at local restaurants, help newcomers learn the ropes about Halloween, and debate the ethics of local stores that carry dirty magazines. Little is held back in what are some pretty fierce electronic debates over town issues.
Dominating the online chatter in Billerica these days is a proposed housing development on nine acres of land off Riverhurst Road near the outskirts of town.
The plan calls for the construction of 342 low-income apartments, something some residents say is needed, while others argue that it will devalue surrounding neighborhoods and cause major traffic problems.
One resident who lives near the proposed site for the complex posted a message Nov. 4 stating: "We as a neighborhood are not opposed to affordable housing, we are opposed to the density of the development being proposed in an area that is already overly populated. The state is not interested in the negative impact this proposal will have on Billerica and its infrastructure."
The message board, found at www.members.fboards.com/billerica, also offers some insight about Billerica's real estate market over the years.
In response to a message about the affordable housing project, one resident writes: "Have you tried looking for a house, condo or apartment lately? There is no such thing as low-income housing, I've been trying to buy or rent in Billerica (where I was raised) for the past four years. ... I guess low-income properties are supposed to be built off of River Street [to] the tune of $200,000, I guess for some people that might be low income ... but not for me."
Finding a house for $200,000 is becoming quite rare in Billerica, but it is still one of the most affordable bedroom communities of Greater Boston.
Billerica, home to a state park and the Middlesex County House of Corrections, and where two rivers run, is less than a 40-mile drive from Boston and from a 30- to 45-minute commute by train from the MBTA rail station in North Billerica.
It also has plenty to offer to the worn-out commuter, with a fast-growing number of corporate technology parks.
Billerica native Susan Brown, who has lived here 50 years and seven months, said Billerica saw a major jump in housing costs when rent control was repealed in Massachusetts a few years ago.
Her $670 rent shot up to $970 under the repeal. But for Brown, who serves as the associate matron of the local Eastern Star Masonic Temple, staying in Billerica means holding on to a bit of the past.
It still has some of the old-town qualities, she said. "I look at it as the friendliness of the community; you almost know who you're going to meet on a particular day at the grocery store."
Home prices have soared for buyers as well as renters. For the first nine months of 2000, the median price of a single-family home in Billerica was $215,000; in 1991, it was just $135,000, according to The Warren Group, publisher of Banker & Tradesman.
Houses currently on the market range from a four-bedroom split ranch with a large yard, deck, and remodeled kitchen listed with Woods Real Estate for $239,900, to a Gambrel with a garage in downtown Billerica listed with Select Real Estate for $279,900. The agency also lists a newly constructed Colonial with three bedrooms, 11/2 baths, and a huge kitchen, located near one of the town's elementary schools, for $319,000.
Billerica is not short on places to shop. Chain stores are scattered everywhere, including downtown, where the back side of a Walgreens drug store, the latest edition to the Billerica Mall, marsthe town's tiny green and what is left of Billerica's main street character.
Many people won't even set foot in Walgreens, because the company moved old houses to make room for what a lot of people thought was an ugly mall, Brown said.
Another development that has been a battle for Billerica is the widening of Route 3. A historic stone wall is slated to be dismantled and moved, and a huge stand of trees to be clear-cut, to make way for a median strip.
Billerica, a once-thriving mill town, takes great pride in its history, and even went so far as to pursue a federal proclamation last year to be declared America's Yankee Doodle Town.
According to local history, a Billerica farmer named Thomas Ditson, who went on to become a Minuteman, was the inspiration behind the final verses of "Yankee Doodle Dandy." Ditson, the story goes, was captured by the British, tarred and feathered at Boston Common, and then paraded through the streets to jeering chants that were incorporated into the song.
The town holds a giant Yankee Doodle Homecoming Weekend in September in honor of the event.
This story ran on page H1 of the Boston Globe on 11/18/2000.
© Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company
