HANSON – The town now has a valid piece of property to market “and do whatever you wish to do with,” by Town Planner Anthony DeFrias, during the Select Board’s Tuesday, Aug. 5 meeting.
He handed over a three-ring binder containing documentation on the work done by state engineers and the Conservation Commission to identify wetland areas on 0 (Zero) West Washington St., a town-owned property near the Water Department, as part of the final report on the property.
“I do want to make sure that you’re super-clear from the beginning that it is not our intention to do anything with housing on this property,” Chair Laura FitzGerald-Kemmett had said before he began.
Thr proposal for developing the property under a grant from the One Stop for $98,826 in 2023, and the town was looking at site development, Planner Anthony DeFrias said.
The property, located is a commercial-industrial zone.
DeFrias filed for the grant in February 2023, receiving approval seven months later in September of that year.
Mass Development, the funding organization, signed a contract with VHB Engineering in January 2024, which led to Hanson signing a technical assistance agreement that May and work to examine the property and its ts wetlands resources, conduct a survey and work up an existing conditions plan began in June.
“They established the wetlands,” DeFrias said. “They did all that work [and] provided us with sketches as to what could fit on that property – best-case scenario a 25,000-square-foot building, with parking, drainage, septic, etc.”
The Conservation Commission was also asked to examine the wetlands line on the property. Afer doing that work, the commission approved the work done by the state-contracted engineers, and to verify and establish the wetlands line. A border resources delineation has been filed with the Register of Deeds.
“It brings us to the end of the grant,” he said. “We’re done. We’ve done all the work. .. You now have a valid piece of property to market and do what you wish to do with – whether it’s to sell it for a one-shot deal, lease the land under it – but it’s ready for marketing.”
DeFrias said the work represented in the binder includes answers to any question a developer would ask … including soil analysis.
Select Board member Ed Heal sought to clarify that a prospective purchaser of the property needn’t repeat any of the studies.
“That’s why this was done,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said, explaining that the town’s Economic Development Committee, which she also chairs, had been seeking information on what properties the town owned and how such properties could be used, including properties no one had been aware of for years.
“I had never, ever heard anybody talk about 0 West Washington St.,” she said, and noted that a developer had told her that he bids on Hanson town property when it comes available because, “You guys sell it for the lowest prices around because you don’t do any permitting work before you sell it.”
DeFrias’ experience in that work helped get the grant to do that preliminary work on 0 West Wasington St.
“It makes the property more valuable, because it’s not a crap-shoot for people,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said, “They don’t have to say, I’m not sure, is that Conservation Commission going to let me do such-and-such… So now you know what it’s worth.”
The next project, for which DeFrias applied for a 2026 One Stop grant is to to aid in disposing of the property, which would provide funds to hire a consultant to take the information on 0 West Washington and get it out into the ether to dispose of the property in whatever manner the town wishes.”
The first grant has to be paid back, which would boost the potential price tag on the property, according to DeFrias, but he does not think the new marketing grant would have to be reimbursed.
“There’s been interest in this property,” he said. “There’s a lot of potential out there, so it’s ready to go now.”
Among the uses DeFrias has heard discussed as possibilities include industry that employs local people, subdividing a 25,000 square-foot building into smaller commercial condos – providing space for more than one business – or even a skating rink, which the area could use.
Accelerating the highway building project
The Select Board voted 4-0 to approve the Highway Building Committee’s presentation of need and cost estimates and authorizing its moving forward with the next steps in replacing the town’s decaying Highway Department facilities.
Member David George was absent.
Select Board Vice Chair Ann Rein led a discussion of progress on the Highway Department Building.
“This is very exciting that we’re even having a conversation,” FitzGerald-Kemmett said.
Rein, who also chairs the Highway Building Committee, said that panel had met earlier in the day on Aug, 5, which discusses reusing the former police station as the Highway Department’s administrative building and obtaining a modular unit – much like the one placed at the senior center for some of its programs near the old police station they now use – recycles materials within a limited budget.
“We’ve tried to come up with some out-of-the-box thinking to reuse, repurpose and some new construction, but to try and do it so it’s as affordable as possible,” DeFrias said.
Preliminary figures, based on a firm estimate for engineering and a rough idea of what steel would cost, put a range of from $2,275,800 to $2,795,800 on the whole project, including site work, demolition and renovation work, according to DeFrias.
“We’re doing this because we want to see if there’s an appetite from the board or the committee to pursue that,” he said, noting that while it would require a debt exclusion and that could solve a problem.
“It’s kind of a Band-Aid but it could be a long-term Band-Aid versus going full-bore at a brand-new highway building at $10 to $12 million.”
FitzGerald-Kemmett noted that there are about a half-dozen debt exclusion projects totaling about $6 million, from HVAC systems to the high school and the new police station being paid off by 2028.
“To me, this is perfect timing,” she said, board members Ed Heal and Joe Weeks agreed.
“Isn’t it time to do improvements before somebody gets hurt?” Weeks said. “It’s a big yes from me, whatever you need.”
The ultimate hope is that a final price tag of about $4 millon can result in something better than they have, but not as expensive as the $10 million projects for new buildings some other towns are constructing, and the site is also almost exactly two miles from anywhere in town, which is especially essential in snowstorms, DeFrias said.
The highway site shares 6.1 acres with the youth sports complex.
The current 4,800 square-foot highway administrative building, constructed in 1964, houses the department staff and has four garage bays and is cramped, poorly lit and poses a problem of exposure to vehicle exhaust, DeFrias said, especially in the winter.
Behind that, the garage shop, built in 1938 has 2,268 square feet and modern vehicles barely fit inside to be worked on, and a steel salt shed built in 1983 is already showing bowed walls.
The single-story former police station, now used by Hanson Youth Sports, was built in 1970 and is being considered for reuse as highway offices.
“We’d like to take that building back,” DeFrias said. “The building is ADA-compliant and has AC, has heat – it’s ready to go.”
While DeFrias describes the building as needing “screen doors and some paint,” it is in sound condition to meet the administrative needs of the Highway Department better than the current office building. “There’s enough space in that building for the [town’s] IT director to have his own dedicated office in the [old] police station,” DeFrias said,
A 40 X 40-foot “Morton building attached to a 130 X 60-foot building could then replace the garage and storage shed, A new stainless steel salt shed would also be constructed.
“It’s very well thought out,” said FitzGerald-Kemmett. “It’s about a third of the price tag we were going to be looking at if … the LiteControl project had moved forward.”