Hudson Selectmen, residents debate former police station’s future

By Dakota Antelman, Contributing Writer

Hudson – Selectmen and residents discussed at length the prospect of converting the old police station into affordable housing at a meeting March 5, held as the town plans its next steps regarding the property.

Gathering at the C.A. Farley Elementary School, steps from the aging property that housed the Packard Street School before the police station, attendees also discussed converting the property into park space among other things.

“I am delighted that we had this many people turn out and I hope that they can give us some thoughts on what we can or what we should do,” Selectmen John Parent said early in the meeting.

Quickly, attendees voiced their opinions.

“This is a need in the town and I don’t know how you want to put it together, but we owe it to our citizens,” said one attendee of a hypothetical affordable housing project.

The conversation also, however, came in the context of a larger discussion about a rumor that the town was exploring building an eight-story development on the site. That, selectmen said, was false.

Still, one attendee urged caution, saying, “I just don’t want to see the neighborhood look too different.”

The town had explored the topic of converting the site into affordable housing prior to the meeting.

Hudson currently meets its required minimum amount of affordable housing proportional to its size. Officials fear, however, that it could fall below that by 2020 due to its population growth.

If Hudson does fall below any future minimum, affordable housing developers could effectively ignore town zoning laws in planning projects.

Near the beginning of the meeting, however, Jack Hunter of the Planning Board noted that the town is far from committing to building affordable housing.

“Nothing has come to fruition at all yet,” he said.

Regardless of its eventual use, Selectman James Quinn was one of several selectmen in agreement that the town should try to use the property for itself before moving to sell it to a private individual or group.

“I am sick and tired of seeing us sell our old schools and having somebody else make money off of them,” he said. “We sell them for what seems like a fair deal at the time and then later on it doesn’t look so good.”

Beyond those discussions, selectmen and Hunter laid out the status of the site and acknowledged major questions that remain unanswered about it.

The police department moved out of the building last year after more than 30 years spent in it. The building, Hunter said, now sits largely abandoned and in “terrible shape.”

“I would be shocked if it were salvageable,” he said.

Assuming that the town would need to demolish the existing building before any development on the site, Hunter noted that the town has not performed any official assessment of how much such a demolition would cost.

In the meantime, Hudson will be considering feedback from their meeting and likely holding a second similar meeting in the future.