January 18, 2024 By Carol Britton Meyer
The Select Board voted Monday night to insert an article into the warrant for the April Town Meeting related to the potential sale of the former 1840s Tree & Park barn at 8 Short St. in Hingham Centre — where Dick Orr has operated his cabinetmaking business for more than a decade through a lease with the town — as a means of generating revenue.
“This is one of the town-owned properties identified by the Sustainable Budget Task Force to assess and possibly sell [for that purpose],” Chair Liz Klein told the Hingham Anchor in a follow-up to the meeting.
“It has been recommended that this property include a preservation restriction,” she said. “The next step is having an appraisal done.”
Orr spoke during the discussion of the warrant article, expressing an interest in potentially purchasing the property.
The building is a former school house that later served as Central Fire Station before the Tree & Park Department took up occupancy once a new station was built.
Leasing the building to Orr was part of an effort to put currently unoccupied town-owned buildings into use through lease agreements as a way of maintaining rather than selling them.
The article — currently in draft form — asks voters to authorize but not require the Select Board to sell the property and building for any use allowed or permitted in the applicable zoning district under the Town of Hingham Zoning Bylaws and subject to a preservation restriction under Massachusetts general laws “to be held by a qualified governmental body or by a qualified charitable corporation or trust.” The property is zoned Business A (including retail, wholesale, restaurant, commercial/residential uses).
The proceeds from any such sale would be deposited into a capital stabilization fund.
“I am pleased the town will maintain this zoning and will require a preservation restriction, for my own sake as well as for the town,” Orr told the Hingham Anchor, which reached out to him for comment.
“We will discuss the article further before recommending action,” Klein said.