Waterford — The town's Planning and Zoning Commission met virtually Tuesday to revise the draft affordable housing plan that will be presented to residents in a public hearing May 10.

Municipalities have until June 1 to adopt a plan required by the state as part of Public Act 17-170. The plan, which needs to be updated every five years, has to explain how the municipality intends to increase its number of affordable housing developments. As defined by the state, housing is considered affordable if households earning 80% or less of the area median income spend no more than 30% of their income on housing.

Glenn Chalder, the town's hired consultant from Planimetrics, compiled a list of comments from residents in a report for possible revisions following the March 22 public informational meeting. The commission had the opportunity to discuss those comments Tuesday.

During discussion, Commissioner Karen Barnett brought up a comment from the public that suggested partnering with nonprofits such as Habitat for Humanity or housing for veterans. She asked how the commission would go about that.

Chalder said it would be a great opportunity to partner with nonprofits and Habitat has experience but the money for the projects would have to be generated. He said it would be hard to identify the specifics of partnering but suggested adding it to the plan as a strategy.

Ken Petrini, a commission member, admitted to struggling with the general idea of the plan and the term "affordable housing." He asked what the plan offers to the community and developers, and what it will be used for in the long term.

Chalder said for many years Connecticut did not focus on housing, and prices have skyrocketed to a point that people can't afford. He said this plan focuses solely on housing, and people and the commission will refer to this document for strategies.

Planning Director Abby Piersall said the commission can consider using the plan as a "tool" for the adaptation of regulations but the plan will not dictate individual cases or developments.

Another point of discussion was the maps on pages 32 and 33. One page shows where affordable developments would be supported with public utilities and walkable to nearby services, and where they would not be supported with wetlands, floodplains, etc. The other page shows a map of potential development sites and criteria. The commission discussed whether to merge them together.

The commission also discussed possibly cutting down the eight pages of community survey results and updating information on how the town could get a four-year moratorium from the Affordable Housing Appeals Procedure enacted by the state in 1989, often referred to as general statute Section 8-30g, in which courts may override local zoning denials of affordable housing proposals.

The commission evidently decided to make three changes to the proposed plan for the public hearing out of Chalder's several suggested revisions. That includes moving around the maps on pages 32 and 33; adding a strategy for partnerships with nonprofits; and removing charts on pages 17 and 18 that illustrated statements already made about the town's number of affordable units.

Chalder added the plan needed to be revised with updated income data when it becomes available from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and the state's Affordable Housing Appeals list, which details the percentage of affordable housing in each municipality.

Piersall said any further suggested revisions, such as updates to factual data, would be presented in written format for public review before the hearing and would be discussed in detail at the hearing.

The Planning and Zoning Commission will hold the public hearing on the proposed draft affordable housing plan in person at Town Hall on Tuesday, May 10, at 6:30 p.m. The proposed, revised plan can be found at bit.ly/wtahplan22.

j.vazquez@theday.com