The McCarthy-Towne School in Acton, which will be converted into 18 mixed-income rental units, was discussed last week at a housing summit organized by the 495/MetroWest Corridor Partnership.

Nearly three years ago, Acton residents voted against demolishing a shuttered elementary school, and a local housing group spearheaded an effort to convince the town to consider using the vacant building for housing instead.

Eventually, the town approved leasing the building and land to a developer who would create mixed-income housing on the site. A request for proposals was issued and a nonprofit developer from Cambridge was selected to construct 18 rental units, half of which will be affordable to those earning at or below 80 percent of the median income.

The project was highlighted during a housing summit last Thursday that touched on strategies and processes that communities within the Interstate 495 corridor could implement to promote housing that is affordable.

Organized by the 495/Metro-West Corridor Partnership, a group of local officials and business leaders representing the economic interests of 32 communities between Boston and Worcester, the discussion drew municipal planners, elected officials, business leaders and several legislators. The partnership teamed up with the Citizens’ Housing and Planning Association and the Home Builders Association of Massachusetts last year to launch a campaign to increase affordable housing production in the region.

“We are approaching approximately 80 percent women in the workplace; that’s the good news … The bad news is that our whole set of funding of houses is now based on two incomes,” said John Mullin, director of the Center for Economic Development at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. “We’ve become totally dependent on two-income families to finance housing and that is something that’s becoming quite restrictive.”

Mullin, who has provided planning advice to Bay State communities, told the group that the No. 1 factor in economic development is good schools. “There is an absolute direct correlation between [Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System] scores and real estate values. If you want to increase the value of your communities, invest in your schools.”

In trying to provide some guidance to communities on how to find housing solutions that work, Mullin said municipalities should focus on attainable housing rather than affordable housing.

Mullin also stressed the importance of ensuring that local officials, like teachers and firefighters, can find affordable homes within town. He instructed town leaders to embrace new technology, promote good design in expensive housing and overhaul local zoning.

“I have written arguably 50 cluster bylaws [and] 50 planned unit development bylaws across the commonwealth. Virtually none of them work,” said Mullin, explaining that planning boards make them “10 times tougher to use” than simple subdivision rules.

In addition to Mullin, officials from Acton and Natick were on hand to talk about initiatives in their communities.

‘A Major Problem’

In Acton, the town was poised to demolish the McCarthy-Towne School, a school that was built in 1926, after new elementary schools were built. But the Acton Community Housing Corp., a board appointed by the town selectmen, pushed to preserve the school and convert it into housing.

Robert Whittlesey, a member of the Acton Community Housing Corp., said the board turned to the Massachusetts Housing Partnership for technical assistance on how to re-use the school, which is located within walking distance of the town library and commuter rail station. MHP helped conduct a feasibility study for the school site.

Board members appealed to the town by pushing the benefits of transforming the vacant school into housing. With 83 percent of town employees in Acton earning less than $50,000, according to Whittlesey, the project will provide sorely needed affordable housing for working individuals and families. The project also will preserve a historical building and put the property back on the tax role.

After receiving town and state approval to lease the school building and property to a developer, the Acton Community Housing Corp. drafted and issued a request for proposals. Two nonprofit developers responded, according to Whittlesey. The board chose the Cambridge-based Homeowners Rehab to develop an 18 mixed-income rental units. The $4.3 million project will feature at least two three-bedroom units. Twenty-five percent of the residences will be affordable to those earning at or below 60 percent of the area median income.

Construction has been stalled for about two years because a question arose over whether the project constituted a public construction job, thus triggering public bid laws, according to Whittlesey.

Whittlesey said the town is still waiting for some clarification on the issue from the state attorney general’s office and is anticipating that the matter will be resolved in the near future.

Participants at least week’s meeting also had a chance to hear about an initiative in Natick. In that community, officials rezoned parts of town to allow for denser development.

The rezoning was sparked after town leaders started noticing that the emergence of new, pricier condominiums and townhouses were driving up property taxes for longtime residents and replacing some of the more affordable residences.

“Many of us in town became aware that this was a major problem,” said Steven Greenberg, executive director of Natick Center Assoc. and Natick’s downtown manager.

Greenberg explained that all the town boards, under the direction of Natick’s community development director, got together to discuss ways that the town could “catch up to the market.” The town boards met with developers and, over the course of about a dozen meetings, came up with the Housing Overlay Option Plan, or HOOP. The plan called for a comprehensive zoning overhaul to encourage affordable housing development in industrial zones and the downtown district. Town Meeting approved the HOOP bylaw last year.

In his remarks, Greenberg noted that communication, collaboration, coordination and consensus were key to establishing HOOP.