Not everyone is on board with hundreds of new apartments in Hingham Shipyard
Upscale Hingham is poised to become apartment central, with hundreds of new luxury rentals proposed on or near the town’s picturesque waterfront.
AvalonBay has proposed a five-story apartment development at the old Hingham Shipyard, joining a 235-unit project the national developer opened back in 2008.
Not far from the waterfront, another big developer, Alliance Residential, has just approached town officials about plans for what could be hundreds of more apartments.
The Phoenix-based builder plans to present an initial proposal this coming Thursday to town officials, said Paul Healey, chairman of the Hingham Board of Selectmen.
Still, while the two big apartment developments could give more options to renters on the South Shore, they have also stirred concern among Hingham residents fearful of an influx of traffic and other negative impacts.
“We see impossible gridlock from Beal Street to the Hingham Square rotary,” said Karen Peters, a trustee at a neighboring townhouse development where some residents are concerned about the apartment plans. “We plan to sit down with AvalonBay and have a meaningful dialogue to come to a project that makes sense.”
The two big apartment proposals are just the latest in a residential development boom that has transformed Hingham’s waterfront, once home to a bustling shipyard.
Developer Steve Samuels rolled out The Launch, a popular waterfront retail destination, nearly a decade ago in the first major development along the town’s waterfront.
AvalonBay was the first on the scene with new housing, building Avalon Hingham Shipyard I, which has 229 apartments.
Over the last few years, Hewitts Landing, which features 150 townhouses spread over 21 acres, and The Mooring, which has 92 townhouse condos, have joined the mix.
But some residents at Hewitts Landing weren’t thrilled by Avalon’s latest apartment proposal, at least in its first iteration, which came in at 250 units, noted Peters, a trustee on the board of the townhouse development. While they support new rental development in general, the proposal, which would take shape at a 3.8 acre site at the shipyard just off Route 3A, was simply too big, with the potential for traffic gridlock.
However, Avalon has since knocked the number of apartments down to 190, while continuing to discuss the project with town officials and neighbors, she said.
“We feel like it’s a good start,” Peters said.
Michael Roberts, senior vice president of development at AvalonBay, called such conversations par for the course with a new project.
With a commuter ferry and shops and restaurants all within walking distance, the old shipyard is the perfect place for housing. And while acknowledging the traffic concerns, Roberts noted that new housing typically generates fewer car trips than retail or office development.
“From a residential standpoint, it’s a great location for housing and it’s a nice mix,” Roberts said. “By adding more housing, we are adding more people to activate what is already there.”
The proposal by the Phoenix-based Alliance is just getting started, with the executives expected to air details at Thursday’s meeting with Hingham selectmen. The developer wants to build in the site of the old Hingham Mutual Fire Insurance building.
“Certainly the town can’t absorb the traffic and the overburdening of the schools,” said Peters, who is concerned about the scale of the new proposals.
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