HUDSON – Town staff are working on an update to Hudson’s Housing Production Plan, which Assistant Director of Planning and Community Development Pam Helinek described as a proactive approach for the planning and development of affordable housing.
The Affordable Housing Trust has hired a consultant to help it make changes to meet state requirements, according to Helinek.
The structure is defined by the state, and, if the state certifies the plan, it may prevent any unwanted 40B development should the town go below the required 10% threshold.
The 10% threshold refers to the percentage of housing in a town that needs to be affordable. Chapter 40B allows developers to sidestep certain zoning restrictions in communities with less than 10% affordable housing stock, otherwise known as “subsidized housing inventory,” if the proposed project has at least 25% affordable units.
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“The plan identifies housing needs, analyzes physical and regulatory development constraints, identifies sites for potential housing production, and sets goals and describes strategies to achieve or maintain the 10% threshold,” said Helinek.
The update to the plan is important because it is a five-year plan, and Hudson’s plan expired in February 2021, she noted.
Helinek said, “We are long overdue for an update.”
The process began with hiring a consultant, and the next step includes having a public forum, which was held Oct. 22. They will require approval from the Select Board and Planning Board prior to submitting the plan to the state for certification.
Helinek said the biggest difference with this update versus the 2016 one will be that “many of our new strategies involve updates to zoning and other bylaws to make it easier to create more affordable housing and more housing that is affordable.”
She said the difference between “affordable housing” and “housing that is affordable.” Affordable housing is deed-restricted housing that counts toward Hudson’s Subsidized Housing Inventory, which determines if they have stayed at or above the 10% threshold.
Housing that is affordable, she said, is market-rate housing. It often is smaller in size, located on smaller lots or in multi-unit housing so it is “less expensive than other market-rate housing.”
In terms of the development of housing, she called the plan update a “plan for the future.”
