Bonfire, carnival, many proposed events are not allowed by HRA’s zoning
/By Dolores Sauca Lorusso
Traditional events like the Thanksgiving bonfire and annual carnival, as well as new concepts proposed for the Hull Redevelopment Authority’s 13-acre property, may require a zoning adjustment by town meeting to be legal, one of the HRA members pointed out during last week’s discussion of the future of the land.
As the HRA worked through finalizing the revision of the application for short-term use of the land at its April 1 meeting, longtime member Bartley Kelly said that events that have been occurring on the property are not currently approved uses in the Commercial Recreation A zone.
“We’ve got to be careful,” said Kelly, who is the town’s building commissioner and zoning enforcement officer. “Right now, events we have been having … for short-term use by non-profits for a number of years” are non-compliant, “and no one has complained about it, but if someone complains, technically it is not allowed.”
He said that to designate the land as event space, the uses will need to be codified in the zoning. The “best path forward,” as identified by Kelly, is to draft an article to add the types of uses the HRA wants to have in Commercial Recreational A to bring to town meeting in 2025, because “this year is pretty much etched in stone.”
Kelly confirmed a bonfire, carnival, and car show are all not allowed uses, even though the land has been historically used for those events long before he came to the building department, and no one has complained.
Vice Chair Dan Kernan thanked Kelly for “bringing this up, because it is good to know this rather than run into a brick wall sometime by surprise.
“If people complain loud enough, even some of the regular sort of things we have been doing get quite complicated for the town,” Kernan said. “It would be nice to know what is ‘kind of grandfathered in’ and what we are reasonably safe continuing to do.”
As for parking, Kelly said the land was a business zone before it was made a Commercial Recreation zone, and it was used for parking then, so that use would be considered grandfathered; while none of the other uses would “officially” fall into the grandfathered category.
Chair Dennis Zaia suggested that members review the Commercial Recreation A zoning so they can “start sketching out what might be a broadening of the zoning to accommodate the kinds of uses” each of the board members have articulated they would like to see on the land.
“This could be the beginning of a proposed zoning modification,” said Zaia.
HRA Clerk Adrienne Paquin said she is confused about what is allowed on the land because the zoning does not allow many of the things that have been historically happening.
Paquin said she has “never heard anything like that in zoning; kind of just feels like accepted uses based on what we have done in the past versus what is actually in our zoning… and so where is the line?”
“I do think we need to resolve this,” said HRA Treasurer Joan Senatore, questioning what happens if someone wants to do something similar to the existing carnival and someone complains.
“Are we going to deny them?” said Senatore. “Then it becomes selective; I think we could get into trouble for that.”
Acknowledging the board has reached a “bit of a hard moment right now,” Paquin said the HRA could approve an application for an event, but if someone “complains to our enforcer,” they may not be able to hold the event.
Lisa French of Rockaway Avenue suggested if certain groups are likely to be denied use of the HRA property based on zoning, this information should be “stated up front in the application, making it clear what types of events, activities, and groups should not apply.”
Senatore said she thinks drafting a zoning article for town meeting is a good idea.
“Then it would be very clear for people who apply for land use in the application, because right now it’s not,” said Senatore.
Resident Susan Mann agreed the zoning should be reviewed before next year’s town meeting “because things that happen at town meeting have to be approved by the Attorney General and that usually doesn’t happen until August.”
“So, if [you] don’t have it done before next town meeting you could be looking at all of next summer being in the position you are now,” said Mann.
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