SOUTH HADLEY — Town officials are encouraging residents to submit comments on a new five-year housing plan that was the subject of a public forum late last month.

Known as a housing production plan, the process began last summer with the formation of a 10-member advisory committee, which has met periodically since. An initial survey of residents was conducted from October to January, and a draft Housing Needs and Demand Assessment was issued at the end of January.

A major purpose of the plan is to give the town a way to achieve the legal threshold for affordable housing without being subjected to a so-called 40B development. Massachusetts General Law Chapter 40B states that if less than 10% of a town’s housing is deed-restricted affordable housing, then mixed-income housing developers can seek development permissions through a “comprehensive permit” and can ignore most local development-related laws, such as zoning.

The form of a housing production plan is set out under the same law. The plan must be approved by the Department of Housing and Community Development.

The process is being led by the town’s Planning and Conservation Department, with assistance from planning and design firms Outwith Studio and Utile.

The Select Board appropriated $40,000 from American Rescue Plan Act funds for the project, Planning Director Anne Capra said.

Outwith Studio’s June McCartin summarized the state of play at the June 22 forum and presented a list of strategies that the town could pursue.

Highlighting some facts from the draft needs assessment, McCartin noted that South Hadley has a large older population as well as a large population of 18-to-24-year-olds because of Mount Holyoke College. One-third of the town’s housing was built in the 1940s and ‘50s, and 40% of the town’s households are low-income, owners as well as renters.

The town has 744 deed-restricted affordable housing units, all rentals. It would need at least 300 more such units to reach the 10% threshold and avoid a 40B development, McCartin said.

Strategies to get the town over the 10% affordability threshold include zoning tweaks; incentives to include affordable units in development; pre-permit housing designs and open source plans that ease the regulatory process; forming an affordable housing trust; and adopting the Community Preservation Act.

Resident Martha Terry noted that South Hadley has two 40R districts, a designation that encourages high-density residential or mixed-use development, including a high percentage of affordable housing units. She said that’s where the focus should be.

“We have not seen one unit of affordable housing built there,” Terry said.

McCartin noted that public comment on the forum will be accepted until July 16 via a survey at links.shhousingplan.org/survey2.

A first draft of the housing production plan should be completed by August, McCartin said, after which it will be open for comment at public hearings.

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