March 24, 2023 By Carol Britton Meyer
Input from residents about what they consider to be the merits or the downside of the town potentially purchasing the Gallery 360 harborfront property at 30 Summer St. is welcome prior to the Select Board and Advisory Committee deciding whether to support such an action for voter consideration at the April 24 Town Meeting.
“This is a unique opportunity to purchase one of the three remaining privately-held parcels along the harbor — one that doesn’t come up very often,” Town Administrator Tom Mayo told the board Thursday.
Potential uses range from, but are not limited to, locating the harbormaster’s office and boat maintenance facility on the site, public restrooms, and parking for public water access and potential use by Hingham Maritime Center and the public at Barnes Wharf to possible Recreation Department use for programming such as paddleboarding, yoga, spinning, and other activities, creation of a public access point from the mooring field to Downtown Hingham shopping and dining, and private rental/lease opportunities, Mayo said.
The seller approached the town recently to gauge potential interest in buying the parcel at the asking price of $1.55 million, according to Mayo following the board’s discussion about this property earlier this week and their decision to place a related article on the Town Meeting warrant pending gathering more information about the parcel.
“We met with the seller to discuss potential pricing, terms, and timing and commissioned a property appraisal, which set the fair market value at $1.25 million,” Mayo said. “Potential negotiations are active.”
A phase 1 environmental assessment was commissioned for the former gas station site, with the findings suggesting that a phase 2 assessment is warranted, including soil sampling and a ground penetrating radar analysis.
Article FF asks the town to vote to authorize, but not require, the Select Board to acquire by purchase the property located at 30 Summer Street upon terms and conditions as the Select Board deems in the best interest of the town and to allocate the money from available funds to make such a purchase.
Despite some misgivings, the Select Board decided last night to leave the article on the warrant after a lengthy discussion — with the caveat that the Select Board and AC will determine what their recommendations will be at a later date prior to Town Meeting.
Due to the amount of time needed to complete a phase 2 environmental site assessment, Mayo initially recommended that this work to be completed at the request of the SB if Town Meeting approves an appropriation and a purchase and sale agreement is successfully negotiated with the seller.
Such an agreement “would potentially include consideration of the cost of any remediation required as a result of the phase 2 assessment,” Mayo explained.
However, Chair William Ramsey said that “given the fact that the town earlier purchased a closely-located parcel that had environmental issues, knowing the result of the phase 2 assessment is going to be essential to inform my ultimate decision.”
With the timeframe for coming up with enough information to make an informed decision tight, Town Counsel for Real Estate Susan Murphy said she spoke with environmental consultants last week to see how long it would take to find out if there are any remaining tanks on the property from its gas station days and was told such a determination should be able to be made the same day.
“If they do borings to see if there are any buried contaminants, the samples would need to go to a lab,” Murphy said. “It may be possible to get that information before Town Meeting.”
The Select Board Office and staff will continue to do due diligence and meet again as needed and also the week before Town Meeting for a status report. “We can decide whether we want to go forward with the [warrant article related to the] purchase at that time,” Ramsey said. “If necessary, we could take a ‘no action’ position on the warrant article and ask the Advisory Committee to do the same, or we could recommend moving forward.”
In the meantime, the board is seeking input from the public to hear about “how residents feel about this and to talk with the Harbor Development Committee,” Ramsey said.
The town is in the midst of creating a Harbor Master Plan, “which would include design and use scenarios for all areas of the harbor, including 30 Summer Street,” Mayo said.
Seriously folks….the town is preparing a $7 million dollar override for “essential services”, the ink isn’t even dry and you want to spend in excess of another $1 million immediately. Do you have a printing press pumping out cash ? One would have thought that with the huge increase in property values along with the existing tax rate that alone would cover most growth requirements for this town.
The goal must be to drive the long term residents, mostly retired, out to another neck of the woods.
Please note that nice to have is NOT need to have.
Would love to see the Town purchase the property as Open Space/Park, but absolutely not to put a Town office space there.