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A prominent legal advocacy group says it could sue the only seven towns who missed a key Jan. 31 deadline to stay in compliance with Massachusetts’ new transit-oriented zoning law over what it described as their racially discriminatory zoning.

Lawyers for Civil Rights sent letters to officials in Berkley, Carver, Holden, Marshfield, Middleborough, Raynham and Seekonk Monday saying the group will “compel…compliance” with the law if officials did not submit an MBTA Communities “action plan” to the state within 10 business days. The plans were due last week to the state Department of Housing and Community Development and describes generally how a municipality plans to meet the law’s requirement to establish by-right multifamily zoning districts near commuter rail and subway stops, among other areas, in the 175 towns and cities served by the T.

“We would really prefer to resolve this amicably and quickly. We don’t want to have to resort to litigation,” said Jacob Love, a staff attorney leading LCR’s work on the issue. “By sending these letters, we hope to just put this back on towns’ radars.”

The lawsuits would be based on the Fair Housing Act, which bars discrimination in housing and has been successfully used to challenge exclusionary zoning in the past, Love said.

“These towns are massively white. When you look at statistics like that in communities that are serviced by the MBTA and are technically in Greater Boston, you have to question why this is so and how zoning polices keep them that way,” Love said. “Everyone acknowledges that [complying with the new zoning law] would help increase diversity in these communities, and these towns are refusing to do so.”

Five of the towns LCR threatened with legal action are over 90 percent white, while Holden is 87.8 percent white and Raynham is 82.7 percent white according to census data; five of the towns are also relatively affluent, with median incomes close to or above $100,000, in addition to Carver (median household income $61,811) and Middleborough (median household income $81,809).

Love said that, while his group is focusing its attention on the seven communities that missed the first MBTA Communities deadline, the group would be analyzing all communities’ action plans and monitoring their compliance with the law.

“That’s the point we’re trying to make with these letters. These towns that continue to obstruct policy change related to multifamily housing and affordable housing are running the risk of incurring legal liability,” he said.

Communities served by the MBTA’s subway system and the Silver Line have until Dec. 24 to ratify new multifamily zoning districts that comply with the law’s size and density requirements and are capable of holding their assigned number of units, including multifamily units already built.