ATHOL – The town’s Housing Production Plan, now in its final draft form, outlines different ways to improve its housing stock.

Completed by Karen Sunnarborg Consulting and Abacus Architects & Planners, the 134-page document can be viewed at https://tinyurl.com/w6ctn83k. Athol Planning and Development Director Eric Smith said his office will accept comments until Monday, Nov. 6.

The plan is designed to help Athol meet its goal of ensuring at least 10% of the housing stock is classified as affordable. State law Chapter 40B requires cities and towns to certify that 10% of the housing stock fall into the affordable category. According to Smith, only about 5 percent of Athol’s housing stock currently falls into the affordable category.

The law does, however, provide what it calls “safe harbor” to municipalities that fall short of the 10% minimum if they can demonstrate progress toward meeting minimum annual housing growth targets.

Smith went on to explain that for communities under the 10% threshold if a developer makes a proposal for property that officials want to remain untouched or set aside for other projects, “we’re powerless to disapprove one of those.”

However, if Athol’s draft Housing Production Plan is ultimately certified by the state, the town could turn down 40B projects without the threat of that decision being overturned by the state.

“Particularly, if we have Riverbend/Bigelow going forward, with those 53 units, and then potentially the South Street project, we could be looking at a two to three-year period where we could be certified, and that’s an important component of the project,” he said.

Smith said securing the financial resources in an effort to create more affordable housing in Athol could be helped if the town adopted the Community Preservation Act, something he described as a heavy lift. Adoption of the act is citizen-driven. It requires certification of a ballot petition signed by 5% of the town’s registered voters, passage in a local election and development of a Community Preservation Plan.

Another tool, said Smith, is the adoption of inclusionary zoning, which usually requires that 10% of the housing in new subdivision projects to be affordable.“The idea is that with new development coming in, you’re not going to get further behind in trying to meet the 10% threshold,” Smith said.

The draft plan, said Smith, also identifies areas of town where development of affordable housing would be most feasible or desirable.

The site of the old Cass toy factory on Canal Street, now owned by the town, is identified as a potential location for affordable housing. Although the property has also been cited as a potential spot for a riverfront park, Smith noted, “There’s some private property and the Millers River that we have to secure to make it a unified site. But we could certainly try to provide housing up front, out of the floodplain area, and try to get that site cleaned up. Hopefully, the town would support having housing there, as is recommended in the plan.”

At a public meeting to discuss development of the housing plan held earlier this year, several residents identified the 100-acre, town-owned Bidwell property as a site for development of senior or affordable housing. However, public surveys, said Smith, have shown many people don’t want to see housing, or any development on the property. The Housing Production Plan, however, does include Bidwell because it had been previously discussed. Smith noted the property is zoned for residential use.

Smith said the Housing Production Plan must now be approved by both the Selectboard and the Board of Planning and Community Development before being sent to the state.

“Certainly, I think the opportunity for more housing has been identified in this plan, particularly in some areas around the downtown area,” he said. “Different town officials and some of the people and boards I work with would like to see more housing downtown; that’s already a significant goal. That’s already where a lot of services and transportation services are already located.”

Greg Vine can be reached at gvineadn@gmail.com.