By Carol Britton Meyer

Hull’s May 6 annual town meeting will feature 36 warrant articles, ranging from consideration of the municipal and school budgets and several Community Preservation Committee recommendations to increasing the rainy day fund by $100,000 – for a balance of $4 million – and appropriating up to $500,000 to continue pursuing a suit over contractor failure at the Crescent Beach seawall project.

The meeting will be held at Hull High School, 180 Main St., beginning a 7 p.m.

CPC recommendations include appropriating Community Preservation Act funds to hire a consultant to conduct a dog park feasibility study; resurface the exterior red zone of the Kenberma pickleball courts; install shade structures at Menice Field, the Dust Bowl, and the area adjacent to the pickleball courts; restore the Paragon Carousel lights; purchase veterans’ memorial grave markers for Hull Village Cemetery; restoration of the Hull Lifesaving Museum boathouse at Pemberton Point and of the steeple at St. Nicholas United Methodist Church; and more funds for the Village Fire Station rehabilitation.

Other articles request creation of a committee to review the town’s capital planning needs; establishing an opioid special revenue fund using proceeds from a settlement of suits brought by states against large pharmaceutical companies to be used for substance misuse prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery support; appropriating $150,000 to conduct a feasibility study for a new combined public safety facility and up to $385,000 to equip, outfit, and update the Hull Community Television media center in anticipation of moving to Memorial School; and authorization to bond $2.4 million to replace the Pemberton Point commuter float. At the same time, the town is seeking grant money or a cost sharing arrangement with the MBTA to help fund the project.

Click here for the full text of the May 6 town meeting warrant

Memorial School improvements

Some of the articles relate to approving a sum of money to be specified at town meeting to pay for repairs and site improvements to the Memorial School to use part of the building as a new town hall; amending the town’s zoning bylaws to permit homeowners in the single-family district to create and rent an accessory dwelling unit within their primary residence under specific requirements; and appropriating the town’s share of the funding to rehabilitate the seawall along Nantasket Avenue opposite Mariners Park.

A number of Allerton Hill residents attended this week’s select board meeting, airing concerns about the seawall project, including the proposed one-way portion of the road, traffic and other issues.

A meeting with neighbors was held recently, with another to be scheduled prior to town meeting for further public input, Town Manager Jennifer Constable said.

She noted that the project will be primarily funded through state and federal grants and that it would be “catastrophic” if that seawall were to fail.

‘Keep an open mind’

Resident Patrick Finn urged the board to “keep an open mind,” while at the same time advocating for approval of the town’s share of the funding.

Select board member Irwin Nesoff urged town meeting voters to support the funding for the seawall.

“It needs to be replaced, and that’s what’s on the warrant,” he said. “If voters choose not to support it, that will put everyone at that end of town at risk. The issues that were brought up tonight can still be addressed, but they shouldn’t stop the replacement of the seawall moving forward.”

Select board member Brian McCarthy suggested reconsidering the one-way road aspect “or have the engineers [at least] explain why it has to be one-way.”

Still another article relates to updating the town’s zoning map to meet the requirements of the new state MBTA Communities legislation requiring as-of-right zoning for multi-family housing near public transportation for communities served by the MBTA to help address the state’s growing housing crisis.

While the town is not required to actually provide that housing, failure to pass this article would adversely affect the town’s eligibility for significant grant funds.

Floodplain overlay district proposed

There’s also an article related to amending the zoning bylaws to establish a floodplain overlay district bylaw, mapping special flood hazard areas as designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency for administration of the National Flood Insurance Program, effective July 3, 2024.

Another article – divided into two parts – seeks to amend the Marijuana Overlay District zoning bylaw in order to limit marijuana establishments to retail only, limit the number of retailers to two by special permit, and to add language to further regulate marijuana retail establishments and medical marijuana treatment centers by special permit.

Overall, this article seeks to amend the bylaw in response to certain procedural issues identified by the state Attorney General in bylaws approved at prior town meetings, and the possibility of misinterpretation of voter intent.

The objective is to change language in the bylaw to ban cultivating, testing, and manufacturing or any other activity as defined under “marijuana establishments.”

The amended bylaw also contains updated zoning language and more modern terms and definitions that have changed over the last several years.

Favorable action on this article would allow the town to move forward with the article that was passed at the 2023 special town meeting as it was intended (to allow the sale of recreational marijuana in Hull), according to the advisory board’s comments in the warrant.

Public access ways

Still another article relates to attempts to resolve a disagreement with respect to the proper use of all town-owned public access ways – including the railroad right-of-way that runs parallel to Nantasket Avenue between L and XYZ streets.

Regardless of the outcome of that article, voters will also be asked to move that the select board stipulate that the railroad right of way from L Street to XY Street, which is unobstructed from December through April, continue to be unobstructed throughout the year, and that the town-owned barrier at L Street be removed and replaced by a lockable gate or chain that could be accessed by police and fire personnel for emergency use.

Ten articles will be addressed under a “consent agenda” adopted by the August 2023 special town meeting allowing the town moderator, in consultation with the select board and the advisory board chairs, to combine articles that are deemed “not likely to be controversial and not likely to generate debate” into one motion that can be passed by a simple majority.

If seven or more voters in attendance wish to hold an item from the consent agenda, that particular article will be removed and acted upon in the normal manner.

The articles that remain on the consent agenda will then be voted on as one motion, without presentation or debate.

Full details on all the warrant articles are available in the warrants that are mailed to every Hull household and also on the town website, and by clicking here.

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