Orange Selectboard OKs housing production plan, sends it to state for approval

By DOMENIC POLI

Staff Writer

Published: 06-04-2023 4:06 PM

ORANGE — A housing production plan is headed to the state government for final approval after getting the blessings of the Orange Selectboard and Planning Board.

The Selectboard voted Wednesday evening to approve the housing plan — which is focused on developing affordable housing — a week after the Planning Board did the same. Andrea Donlon, land use and natural resources planner with the Franklin Regional Council of Governments, joined Walker Powell, Orange’s land use planner and conservation agent, in addressing the Selectboard to explain the plan’s objectives and finer details.

Powell said a housing production plan determines housing needs for a town’s current and future residents by examining past trends, populations and housing conditions, development constraints, and projected changes. She explained the goal is to identify a community’s housing needs as well as strategies that facilitate development of housing and affordable housing.

“Affordable housing in his case means that it’s no more than 30% of a household’s income and it’s subsidized,” she explained. “To qualify for a housing production plan, affordable housing has to be subsidized and limited in some way, to make sure that it remains affordable. And this is important because if a town is below 10%, then developers get exceptions to the local zoning [bylaws].”

Powell said Orange sits at 11.8% affordable housing. She went on to say, however, that approval of a housing production plan is still important in case the town drops below the designated threshold.

“And in the meantime we can use it to strategize about how we meet the current needs of residents,” she said, adding that the town can examine how to keep longtime residents in the community as they get older, how to get people to return to Orange to raise a family and how to enable people who work in town to better afford to live there.

Powell then yielded to Donlon, who said FRCOG “was essentially hired by the town to do this housing production plan.”

Donlon explained that the plan has four sections as part of a structure designed at the state level. In a slideshow presentation, she told Selectboard members that Orange has 2,977 occupied housing units and approximately 65% of the housing in town was built before 1970. She said 866 households in Orange pay less than 30% of their income on housing-related expenses, and homeowners are less cost-burdened than renters. Donlon said 1,567 households, or 54%, had income of less than $60,000. Also, there are 410 affordable rental units in town and no deed-restricted affordable home ownership options.

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The first section of the plan pertains to conditions and constraints. Donlon said Orange has its own municipal airport and is serviced by the Franklin and Montachusett regional transit authorities, but the town’s school population has been in decline. The plan’s second section provides a series of options — such as zoning strategies, investing in existing buildings and capacity-building strategies — the town has at its disposal.

The third section identifies town-owned and private properties that could be used for affordable housing development. Lastly, the plan’s fourth section identifies state and federal grant sources as well as regional partner organizations conducting housing development work.

Donlon mentioned Gov. Maura Healey recently created the state Executive Office of Housing and Livable Communities to create more homes and lower housing costs in every region of Massachusetts. Donlon said she expects more funding designated for housing in the state.

Once the presentation had concluded on Wednesday, Selectboard member Jane Peirce said she was in favor of approving the housing production plan because it is important to have it in place to apply for grants and control development. She does, however, have some problems with it.

“In my opinion, this is one of those plans that ought to sit on the shelf, because I found the tone of it ... to be a little depressing and a little bit disturbing in the way it represents the community,” she said, adding that the town needs a diverse array of housing options, not just affordable housing, that were not outlined in the plan. “I suspect that the state is kind of calling the shots on the way you have to present this plan and that the picture that is drawn of Orange is not necessarily what you all [Powell and Donlon] would conclude if you were left to your own devices.”

Peirce thanked Powell and Donlon for their work but said she feels the plan “misses the mark in terms of really giving us guidance for all the housing that we need in town.”

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.

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