By Carol Britton Meyer

The select board addressed a lengthy agenda this week, from a sound mitigation plan for a local restaurant to warrant articles to create a community housing trust for affordable housing and to limit “visual clutter” from certain types of signage.

Tipsy Tuna restaurant owner Anthony Ghosn presented the mitigation plan with a focus on a particular Porrazzo Road resident who has repeatedly voiced concerns about noise coming from music on the patio.

Select board member Greg Grey, who has heard complaints from a number of neighbors, said he doesn’t see “a decent solution” to the noise issue unless Ghosn builds a “roof and walls” over or around the patio.

Concern was voiced from some members of the board that the mitigation plan is geared toward the one neighbor and not the surrounding area as well.

“The restaurant is often over capacity, which adds to the noise, and you are relying not on running a restaurant, but a nightclub out of the back end, which you are not licensed to do,” Grey said. “The true problem is how you run your business. The noise issue isn’t going to go away [unless] you are more flexible by limiting the hours of entertainment.”

Ghosn said he focused on the one neighbor because he wasn’t aware that others had gone to Grey with complaints.

Entertainment policy/noise ordinance proposed

Board member Jerry Taverna noted that there’s no town regulation by which to measure the mitigation plan and suggested the board consider crafting an entertainment policy/noise ordinance to address noise issues townwide “that stipulates that at a certain time of night, the volume goes down.”

The board will discuss Taverna’s recommendation at a future meeting.

“This is a quality of life issue, and we need to come up with a common-sense policy that covers everyone across the board,” he said.

Town Manager Jennifer Constable asked board members to be mindful of looking at the issue from both perspectives.

Ghosn promised to have the sound mitigation alterations completed before the start of the new season, contingent on building commissioner approval, which he expects soon.

Chair Irwin Nesoff thanked Ghosn for working with the board to resolve the noise issue.

“We want you to be successful and remain in town, but we need to address these complaints,” he said.

Ghosn will return to the board later this year to request a seasonal license. In the meantime, Taverna suggested Ghosn purchase and install a decibel meter to gauge noise levels at Tipsy Tuna “so you can turn the music down” when it reaches a certain level.

In other business…

• The board supported a warrant article to create a community housing trust, as explained by affordable housing committee chair Cynthia Koebert, which in part would have the authority to purchase property for affordable housing without town meeting approval to take advantage of unexpected opportunities.

Such a trust would provide for the creation and preservation of affordable housing for the benefit of low- and moderate-income households and for the funding of community housing.

Affordable housing committee member Bob Pahl described the benefits of such a trust, noting that there’s $500,000 in unspent Community Preservation Act funds dedicated to community housing.

Board members expressed appreciation for the AHC’s efforts and the progress made so far in support of creating affordable housing beyond the current 1.6% of the total number of housing units in town.

The state’s desired threshold is 10%, which leaves Hull vulnerable to proposed Chapter 40B comprehensive permits that allow developers to circumvent most local regulations in exchange for an affordable housing component.

“A trust would be a building block in moving forward with creating more affordable housing units,” Constable noted.

The board voted unanimously to place the housing trust article on the spring town meeting warrant, pending review by staff and legal counsel.

“The effort to create more affordable housing has been going on for decades, and it’s exciting that something is going to come out of this finally,” select board member Brian McCarthy said.

• The Hull Beautification Committee and the Design Review Board are leading an effort to tighten guidelines and prohibit certain types of signage within Hull’s existing sign bylaw through a town meeting article this spring.

The proposed changes would limit highly illuminated, moving, and excessive commercial signage, electronic community message boards, and billboards.

The board supported this article, as explained by beautification committee member Michael Parks and design review board member Marie Rockett, while referring it to the planning board, because the change involves the town’s zoning bylaw.

• The select board accepted advisory board member Dan Sullivan’s letter of resignation, acknowledging his long service to the town.

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