Acton Reviews Public Comment On Housing Production Plan

ACTON, MA — The Board of Selectmen and Planning Board held a joint meeting to hear public comments on the draft of the town housing production plan on Monday. Because of the number of citizen comments at Monday's meeting, the town said a revised draft will not be available on Friday and the joint meeting of the Board Of Selectmen and planning board will not take place on May 12.

The HPP as its commonly known, identifies the housing needs of a community and the goals and strategies it will use to identify and achieve the 40B 10 percent threshold.

The consultants, the planning department and a representative from the Planning Board and Selectmen will be meeting on Wednesday, May 13 to establish a new timeline.

The town will release a revised version of the Housing Production Plan (HPP) once the new timeline is announced next week. The Board of Selectmen and planning board will hold a follow-up joint meeting at a date to be determined. At this meeting, the consultants will provide an overview of the revisions made to the HPP and explain how each comment was handled. The Board of Selectmen and planning board will consider adoption of the HPP at this future meeting. To view the initial draft plan click here.

The town said it chose a proactive approach so that it would be “Much more likely to achieve our affordable housing planning goals — since the fall, the planning department has led a HPP process to renew our plan.”

The process included significant local input through focus groups, a community-wide survey and workshops. The plan provides a constant framework from prior efforts, and outlines the baseline needs as well as goals and strategies – some aspirational, and some more practical.

An approved HPP gives communities under the 10 percent threshold of Chapter 40B, but are making progress in producing affordable housing more control over comprehensive permit applications through a ‘safe harbor’ for a specified period of time.