It’s your space.

My name is Dan Kernan.

My family moved to Hull 30 years ago. We hope to grow old and gray here. Well, older and grayer…

I am running for the 5-year seat on the HRA Board, excited by the possibility of serving the community.

You may have seen me around town in my orange camper van. Hard to miss with a peace sign in the back. One of my beloved places on Earth is there by the HRA land watching sunrises and sunsets. We live right up the street and walk to the beach to the rocks across from the Bakery. You may know me from Hampton Circle as the man lining up 50 children by size to rush into our annual Easter Egg Hunt, 28 years running. I am your neighbor, and I love Hull. 

I have a B.S. degree in Environmental Resource Engineering with a focus on groundwater modeling. Decades of Software Development experience until I retired as the VP of Content, Market Data and Online Services for Fidelity.com. Hundreds of employees, tens of millions in budgets, I am very very comfortable managing conflicting needs from various stakeholders, finding common ground to bring very complex projects to successful completion. I am now a 64-year-old math teacher who went back to work to make sure kids struggling with math don’t grow up thinking they’re just “not good at it.” 

I strongly believe this land belongs to the citizens of Hull. That the HRA-5 board members are stewards of this land and, as such, beholden to the citizens to make this central jewel of our town be something that benefits the community more than the developers and contractors. Leaving the land fallow as a dusty parking lot for decades has been neglectful. Our beautiful, vulnerable peninsula has one opportunity to get this right for generations to come. Whatever is developed there will be there when our grandchildren are grownups. 

I applaud and appreciate all the efforts the HRA is putting into gathering feedback on their existing plan. As a result, they have gathered a tremendous amount of citizen input which points out the need for alternate plans.

If voted onto the board, I’d like to invest in developing the ideas that have been put forth by the citizens of Hull into alternate options that the citizens can compare.

That way the town can be presented with options to choose from, rather than modifications to an Urban Renewal Plan already fully cooked. All HRA plans have moved forth leading with condos, commercial space, and hotel construction as fundamental to their development plan. What if we reversed that thinking? Dreamed bigger? The citizens need (and deserve) to see alternate plans that are based on their ideas and preferences: contiguous open space, community center, event locations, artful natural landscaping, just to mention a few.

What if a firm was contracted to design renders of that space thinking of tourism, tax revenue, community, … all the same parameters … but starting with developed open space in first position?  Citizens could then choose among plans, not just be asked to react to one.

Importantly, whatever the HRA develops should fit into a larger town of Hull strategic plan. And finally, in the meantime … while years of planning continue, the HRA space can be better utilized —and beautified.

I would see my role on the HRA as the voice of the people.

hello@dankernanforHRA.com

My thoughts as I ask for your vote:

Most of us in Hull understand that the HRA land cannot be left as is. Developed open space is a low-impact alternative that preserves future options.

I will immediately work to:
• improve current space with natural landscaping, seating and picnic tables
• transfer parking to the town
• ensure any revenue goes directly to the town, not held in HRA coffers
• work with the community to develop better options
• present options at town meeting: with pros/cons, tradeoffs and opportunity costs
• ensure that plans for the HRA are part of a town-wide strategic plan
• look towards and plan for a future sunset date for the HRA

The current HRA board has only presented one approach: BUILDING BIG:
a hotel, a 500 seat conference center, 100+ condos — 50 feet high.

Missing from their plan is any discussion of opposing views. Many of the assumptions
regarding revenue to the town, income from sale, amount of open space are presented
as a sales pitch. Perhaps most importantly, they do not include any critical review or
integrate any citizen concerns

6 Points to Ponder:

  • The HRA justifies development based on deeming the land blighted (wrecked, barren, dilapidated). Why is it blighted after 60 years of HRA management and a bank account holding nearly $2 million?

  • The “80% open space” message advertised with the HRA plan is truly misleading. The HRA is counting protected shoreline and tidal areas of the Weir River as well as the sandy beach along the ocean. Are parking lots “open space”? The center strip, bay-to-ocean, sunrise-to-sunset area many of us perceive as “Home” will be largely covered in buildings —50 feet high — 35% higher than the Nantasket Beach Hotel.

  • The Woods Hole report, developed for the HRA, strongly recommends very serious mitigation efforts to build on this land at all. From self-rising gates, to elevated walkways, swales and berms to train flow. Why are we building there?

    To quote Woods Hole: “The annual chance of flooding for HRA Properties is on the order of 5% in present day and increases to 10% and 30% in 2030 and 2070, respectively.”

  • Money from the sale of the HRA land (touted as $7-8 million) will not go the Town. The current HRA board plans to retain control of the $$ and use it as they see fit, when they see fit, for projects proposed that they (not Select Board, not citizens at Town Meeting) select.

    I contend that all funds generated by the HRA should be transferred to the Town. That the Town itself should reap the benefits of $20/car parking, rather than one family in town.

  • Once we add a 500 seat convention center, another hotel, and 100+ condos to this narrow land, how will this improve traffic and safety response through town? We just saw the ramifications of our little peninsula responding to one fire.

  • So many already. Who can confidently say that Hull condos already developed (and planned) increase NET revenue to our town?