Hull zoning bylaw aims to revive Nantasket district, with eye on sea rise

Mass Innovations, From The Beacon, October 2013

This past spring, Hull enacted a zoning bylaw designed to revitalize the town’s Nantasket Beach district while also making the area better-equipped to deal with rising sea levels.

The change, which created the Nantasket Beach Overlay District, was the product of an exhaustive public process, with a total 23 meetings in the 12 months leading up to its approval at Town Meeting in May.

“We started with a public goal of protecting the environment of the town and its historic character, but also allowing some kind of development within that framework,” said Robert Fultz, the town’s planning and community development director.

The ordinance enables renovations as well as new construction in the district to be built slightly higher than was previously allowed, in order to make the structures less prone to damage from coastal flooding. The increase of the “freeboard” from the standard four feet for buildings in flood-prone areas to six feet significantly reduces the owners’ insurance premiums.

The concept builds on a policy that Hull introduced about four years ago, which applies only to existing residential properties. That policy, which has received praise from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, waives the first $500 in building permit fees for owners willing to build their structures up to four feet higher than what is required by state and federal flood zone rules.

In creating the Nantasket Beach Overlay District, town officials and residents worked to balance conservation and development concerns, Fultz said. There are incentives, for example, for incorporating Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) standards into construction and renovation.

Owners are also encouraged to make creative use of the additional freeboard. The policy allows four floors of a building to be devoted to shops and other businesses on top of the lowest floor, which, as freeboard, is technically not habitable. But 50 percent of the lowest floor, which can be up to nine feet, can be used for traditional “Market Hall” seasonable uses, such as farmers markets and art installations. The overlay district allows the other 50 percent of space on the lowest floor to be used for parking.

“The floor requirement addresses the environmental level of increasing sea-level rise and frequency of storms,” Fultz said. “But it’s also consistent historically. … And it makes a more active streetscape during our tourist season.”

Fultz described the Nantasket Beach district as having been in decline since the closing of its iconic amusement park in 1984.

“After we lost Paragon Park some 30 years ago, the economy of the town has sort of spiraled downward,” Fultz said. “We’ve had some disincentive in this area, vacant buildings, etcetera. What we are trying to do is give existing property owners another option in terms of development.

“There was a real awareness that we had to work with market forces to make this work out,” Fultz added.

In developing its zoning change, Hull received technical assistance from the Metropolitan Area Planning Council.

For more information, contact Robert Fultz at (781) 925-3595.