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Making good on a threat it issued in February, the Boston advocacy group Lawyers for Civil Rights has sued the town of Holden for not complying with the provisions of the state’s MBTA Communities zoning reform.

Holden, like all 177 towns and cities with MBTA subway, bus and commuter rail service, was required to submit a basic plan by Jan. 31 laying out how it was planning to comply with the law. By Dec. 31, 2024, Holden and other towns along or near a commuter rail line have to have implemented zoning districts that allow for moderately dense multifamily developments to be built by-right, without having to go before a planning or zoning board for special approval, as most such developments have to do today.

But officials in Holden, a suburban town just north of Worcester, have said they don’t think the law constitutes a mandate for towns to act, despite wording that towns “shall” establish these zoning districts that Attorney General Andrea Campbell said in an official notice this spring means towns don’t have any other option – and that failing to comply could also open them up to liability under state and federal anti-discrimination laws given the racially discriminatory effect single-family housing continues to have on who can afford to live in a community.

For its lawsuit, Lawyers for Civil Rights teamed up with advocacy group the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance and a low-income family that’s searching for affordable housing. Attorneys at law firm Brown Rudnick are also assisting.

“We must maximize every available tool to keep Central Massachusetts families housed in their communities of choice,” CMHA CEO Leah Bradley said in a statement. “With the unprecedented surge in rent prices and homelessness in recent years, more Massachusetts families are becoming homeless and they are staying homeless longer. Communities across Central Massachusetts are working with us to find solutions to the housing crisis. We are asking the same of Holden.”