By Dolores Sauca Lorusso

This week’s meeting of the Hull Redevelopment Authority featured an extended discussion of the draft Urban Renewal Plan and its role in guiding the future of the 13-acre site.

On Monday, members failed to approve a motion made by Clerk Adrienne Paquin to “not endorse the draft Urban Renewal Plan as currently written.”

Paquin said she was prompted to make the motion because it has come to her attention the draft URP is being used as justification for other projects in town, when it is not something “shovel ready or about to happen.”

To read the current draft Urban Renewal Plan, click here

“I dislike how it is being framed and used because it is on our website as a draft,” said Paquin.

“Our town is treating it as a living document or something that can happen,” said longtime HRA member Bartley Kelly.

Member Dan Kernan seconded Paquin’s motion, sayong it is a way to “put a stake in the ground” to reaffirm that the HRA will be making changes to the document.

The motion was met with heated discussion; however, all members of the HRA agreed the goal is to get back to the board’s core mission and revise the URP.

Kelly did not believe the motion was “constructive,” saying that the URP draft does represent some members of the current board, and to say the HRA no longer endorses it may send the message “we don’t want development on the HRA property.”

“There are lots of good parts of the plan; lots to put in and take out,” said Kelly, pointing out the public input phase has been going on for more a year and some suggested items, if incorporated into the URP, will require zoning changes.

“The motion was not to throw out the current draft URP,” said Paquin, adding she should have made this motion when the new HRA board was assembled to demonstrate that it would not move forward with this specific URP.

“We received a lot of input… the input does not align with what we have as a working document,” said Kernan. “We all agree we want significant changes to what is presented… how do we let the town know?”

HRA Chair Dennis Zaia was on the side of not endorsing Paquin’s motion. He said the board’s focus needs to be to “identify what about the existing URP is not working and that is how to modify it…reaching a compromise that will benefit the community at large.”

“We each talked about what we envisioned,” said HRA Treasurer Joan Senatore. “As a board, we have not discussed it to see what can move forward.”

Senatore did not support the motion, saying the way the board can communicate that it is listening is to focus on regular business, which is the URP.

Resident Mindy Markowitz suggested that to alleviate confusion, the board could add a disclaimer on its web page that indicates “this is a work in progress; this is not final.”

In reference to the disclaimer, Zaia said “that may be a simple solution.” Kernan and Paquin also supported Markowitz’s idea of adding clarifying wording to the website.

“Once we start working on this (URP) we are not going to get to a vote right away; it will be a long way down the road…we need to do something to communicate,” said Kernan.

Kelly was not opposed to adding information to the web page describing the status of the draft URP, suggesting that members could come up with language when the HRA begins to discuss revisions to the URP on August 12.

“We need to look at it holistically…the primary objective is to complete the draft URP and come together as a board to decide the direction we are going to go,” said Kelly.

The board will meet on August 5 to provide an update on the results of the performances by the Hideaway Circus last week. On August 12, members will begin discussing updates to the draft URP. Subsequent HRA meetings will be held on August 25, September 9, and September 30.

To send correspondence to the HRA, use the contact form at hra02045.com and each member will receive the message; or send an email to admin@hra02045.com.

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