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HAMPTON BEACH REDEVELOPMENT (now with pictures!)

Started by AntonLee, September 30, 2008, 07:30 PM NHFT

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AntonLee

taking a stroll at the beach tonight and I noticed some really neat new pictures up at the "seashell building".  The pictures were of this "Plan" to redevelop Hampton Beach into a new complex that will utilize the under-utilized parts of the beach.  There will be a new building in the center with a stage and an ampitheatre that can hold up to 2,000 people.  It will include beautiful side stages for "other ongoing events"

http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton/town/masterplan/index.htm  Hampton Beach has a 50 year 'master plan'.  For some reason, I see Skelator and Mr. Burns working together for the destruction of this beautiful beach.

http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton/town/masterplan/appendices.htm#_Toc527791510
check out the Hampton Beach Seashell State Park (the building directly in front of the State Park). . . works to bring in $5,388 a year while spending $173,870. . .

but it "needs" a replacement.  They need a bigger fancier building to hand out change for the meters, map guides that you can get at any rest area off the highway, and provide a tower for lifeguards to watch soap operas.  The bathrooms are horrible, the '5 star rated clean beach' is far from what could be done by private individuals. . .

QuoteDuring the Great Depression, the State of New Hampshire stepped in to take financial control and turned the beach into a state park facility.  Even with the many improvements made to enhance the recreational opportunities and safety in the park during this time, the image of the Beach began to decline as the tourism market shifted from extended vacations to day trips.  The HBIC land lease expired in 1997 and the Town of Hampton and related authorities, including the state, are now stewards of the developed areas of the Beach through their decisions on land use, environmental regulations and local infrastructure. 

some things that the beach 'needs' because the building they have, well, it's simply too "70's" looking. . .

Quote* Replacement of the Seashell Complex with accommodations for an open air stage with viewing capacity for 2,000; toilet facilities; lifeguard watch station; First Aid room; State Park visitors' contact office; Chamber of Commerce visitors' information center; shade space; exterior seating; rinse-off showers; and bike racks.
    * New bathhouse for Marine Memorial with accommodations for toilets, and site amenities including shade space; exterior seating; rinse-off showers; and bike racks.
    * New bathhouse for Haverhill Street area with accommodations for toilets and site amenities including shade space; exterior seating; rinse-off showers; and bike racks.
    * South Gateway Visitor Center and Park Administrative Facility to include:
      o Renovation of the existing maintenance building
      o New Visitors' Center area
      o Visitor contact and reception area
      o RV campground office
      o Restrooms
      o River view seating area
      o New park administrative area
      o Lifeguard area
      o Meter Patrol area
http://www.nhparks.state.nh.us/planning-development/Hampton-Beach-State-Park-Revelopment-Project/hbsprp-fact-sheet.aspx

http://www.seacoastonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080304/NEWS/803040314/-1/NEWS11&sfad=1

this seashell stage just isn't good enough.

just like what was there before the Seashell of today was the police station:

but that wasn't good enough so they moved it to the backstrip

and then this police station wasn't good enough so they replaced it with a new POLICE HQ . . .a monstrosity.

and if you're at the beach, look for these pictures. . . I'll try and take some good pics soon and post them. . . you'll see what they've got their brains wrapped around. . . and the best part

if you're in Keene, if you're in Manchester, if you're in Grafton, if you're in Concord. . . . Laconia, Lincolin, Conway, Seabrook. . .

YOU'RE PAYING!

we gotta get on this.

AntonLee


looks nice from way back when doesn't it?  Simple and busy.  A bustling centre of commerce.

QuoteThe biggest complaint he hears about the current facilities is the bathrooms, he said.

"The bathrooms are old," Warburton said. "They are about 40 to 60 years old, and there is not enough of them. The current facilities are just not compatible with 2008."

it seemed simple enough to me. . . but then again I'm no doctor. . .people MIGHT HAVE CHANGED HOW THEY GO TO THE BATHROOM since 1965. . . the toilets of yesteryear just are not compatible.

Fluff and Stuff

Um, I'll have to go there next time it doesn't rain :)

freedominnh

Pricetag is 17 million dollars. That would have to be appropriated through NH legislature.  Fat chance in this economy.

Five Star rating was only on water quality. I will post that link.  Hundreds of volunteers pick up beach litter daily year round.  Human pigs are the problem.

John Edward Mercier

Last I heard McLean resigned and Bald was looking for a new park director to refer to Lynch.

AntonLee

I hope that you are right about it not going through in this economy. . .but won't they spin it into being a BOOM for the economy. 

People will not come to Hampton Beach in the winter to see a concert out in the open (but with neat little shade stands).  They won't come because Hampton doesn't take care of the beach in the winter.  The streets are barely plowed, and if anyone thinks the "townies" give two shits about anyone living at the beach, just remember the "revitalization" that inconvenienced hundreds of winter residents, not allowing them to return to their homes during construction.

and the flooding.  "hampton NEEDS a new station. . . nevermind about those silly cottages under 4-5 feet of water every winter"

there is a lot of new signage that has gone up in the last month or so. . . THEY still think it's going to happen. . . hence I still think they're going to make it happen.

bouncer

wasteful spending at it's worst. People only come down for daytrips  now we don't need the seashell stage at all. More restrooms yeah that would be an improvement. I like Oregon law no development at the shore open access for all. Bulldoze all building at the beach restore it to it's natural state and let the people enjoy nature.

John Edward Mercier

State parks improvements have historically been paid for by the State parks system revenue... and maybe some bonding against future incomes.
Hampton Beach is one of the highest revenue parks... so hard to guess.


AntonLee

need another reason to oppose? 

They're going to take a whole lot of spaces to park.  No parking = no income = loss of funds.

silly. . .the beach is packed and traffic sucks as it is.  No where to park. . . this is a silly idea. 

PowerPenguin

Another point: There isn't room for this crap, even if building it was otherwise a good idea. The better (but still not great) option would be to sell the venue off to one or more private orgs and have them manage development. Option #1 is of course selling it and ending it there, but that would probably be too much to ask of the 50-year central planners ;)

J’raxis 270145

A fifty-year plan, eh? Does that mean it's ten times the communism you'd normally expect? ;D

AntonLee

exactly. . . does anyone think that the Casino wouldn't do a better job owning that small piece of land?  Sell it to someone to make money off of it.  Someone last season told me that they thought the 'blue building' was simply a large token changer with some bathrooms.

and it is. . . a glorified bureaucrat HQ. . . a hangout for douchebags. 

there is NO parking at Hampton.  When I'd like to go down there in the summer, I don't bother. . .there's no chance.  Then they took away parking on both sides of the street on all the Alphabet streets.  Then they raise the rates.  Forget it Hampton. . . I'll go down all fall and winter. . . and I own the beach.  It's beautiful.

That piece of beach is second to none, but we're going to put up some monstrosity so a guy can play his harmonica in front of 1994 empty seats, while his family of 6 takes up the rest.

WithoutAPaddle

#12
A comprehensive history of the Hampton Beach Improvement Company can be found online here: http://www.hampton.lib.nh.us/hampton/HISTORY/randall/chap2/randall2_4.htm


HAMPTON: A CENTURY OF TOWN AND BEACH, 1888-1988
Chapter 2 -- Part 4 of:  The Hampton Beach Improvement Company

(Excerpts:)

Coincident with the beginning of the street railroad was the establishment of a private company that, to quote one critic, has been "a thorn in the side of the town" almost from its beginnings. The Hampton Beach Improvement Company (HBIC) had its 99-year lease approved at the same April 1897 special town meeting that granted property-tax concessions to the street railway.
 
...(a decade later), the Town and the HBIC were in controversy again, with instigator Merrill H. Browne using the front page of the Union to keep the problem before the public...

Writing a letter to the December 15, 1910, Union, supporting his plan for a new town hall to replace the aging structure then in use, Browne suggested, "Look about you and see how you have been improving the Improvement Co., paying their bills and running a bureau of charity for their special welfare."...

In a rambling letter the following week.., Browne wrote, "(In) about 1898, the town of Hampton killed one golden goose [by leasing to the HBIC], just before she began laying her golden eggs. Don't let her kill this second golden goose she has caught" by not protecting the North Beach with a breakwater... 

In August 1912, a campaign letter from Merrill H. Browne said that as a result of his suit against the Town, the HBIC was taxed for the first time, assessed at $50,600. The company paid the tax under protest and took the Town to court. In November 1914, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the HBIC, saying that when the lease was signed, the land was worthless. The court ordered Hampton to refund taxes paid for 1912 through 1914, a total of $1,844.49. Lawyers' fees and court costs were $2,000 more. So ended the Town's first attempt to annul or revise the HBIC lease, and Merrill H. Browne was rarely heard from again....

The matter of contesting the lease was addressed again in 1953, pushed by newly elected Selectman Lawrence C. Hackett..   Hackett figured that if the lease could be broken, Hampton would realize some $2.3 million plus interest over the remaining 44 years of the lease. In November, Hackett raised several issues in a letter to State Attorney General Louis C. Wyman, one being the fact that former manager George Johnson apparently had granted quitclaim deeds to four lots in 1914, a possible violation of the lease... Hackett also questioned whether the 1898 selectmen legally could have made an agreement to permit a private company to lease a valuable asset for such a long period of time for such a low return. He said the HBIC was not leasing some of its property, another possible violation....

The 1954 town meeting raised $1,000 to hire lawyers to review the legality of the lease, and in December 1955 the Town asked the courts for a declaratory judgment, alleging that under the laws of 1933, the HBIC had allowed its incorporation to be revoked (within three months of the suit, they reincorporated). That suit also alleged that the annual $500 payment, while adequate when the company was challenged in 1914, was out of proportion with the current value of the land that taxpayers were asked to pay a disproportionate amount of taxes as a result of the small payment made by the company. Also questioned was the legality of as many as 37 lots that had been granted quitclaim deeds by the HBIC between 1911 and 1930.

The case was not settled until the fall term of 1966, when the New Hampshire Supreme Court dismissed the suit and awarded attorneys' fees to the HBIC. In effect, the court ruled the lease was valid, saying that the payment of a yearly fee in lieu of taxes was not unconstitutional and that the company which had sustained losses in its early years, was now entitled to make a profit on its investment...

The 1972 town meeting adopted a resolution to grant to tenants in the HBIC area protection for their leases beyond the 1997 expiration of the HBIC lease. (That meeting was not properly warned of the resolution so it had no legal effect; however, annual meetings since that time, and the 1982 special leased-land meeting, have granted all lessees, including HBIC lessees, the right to buy the Town's interest in their lots or to sign a 25-year lease with the Town. This arrangement gives property owners holding leases protection in making new investments and in seeking mortgages that might require terms extending beyond the decreasing life of the HBIC lease. Even with this resolution, many property owners have had problems borrowing from banks, which were reluctant to lend mortgage money on property situated on leased land. This situation is discussed in more detail in the section on the Town's decision to sell its leased lots to lessees and sublessees of the HBIC.)...

The rents charged by the company to its tenants have long been an issue with building owners in the HBIC leasehold, a situation over which the Town has no control. Unlike tenants of a building who can move if their rents increase, the HBIC's tenants are in some ways tied to their land, since they own buildings on the leased lots. Refusal to pay their rent would likely result in an order to move their buildings from the lots. Originally the lot rents were $25 per year, and charges remained low until after World War II, when property values increased dramatically. Increases have been especially marked since 1980.

For many Hampton residents, especially some Beach property owners, a collective sigh of relief will be heard at midnight on March 31, 1997, when the HBIC lease expires. For the Improvement Company, it will be the end of a lucrative business started by a handful of local men who saw the potential value of "wastelands."

AntonLee

my girl and myself go down to look at the plans.  Maybe I'll take pictures and post them here.  One of them is near where they're planning on taking a ton of beach space and some parking spaces to build a restroom complex. . . very victorian styled as well.  If you're going to shit, you're going to shit in a place that looks like it's owned by the Queen.

Another sign is posted near the beginning of the "Seashell Complex" as it stands today. . . it has what is called "enhanced crossing". . .in other words, it's a bridge that crosses 1A at the Casino Ballroom.  It's victorian styled. .. you know, like those victorian styled crossings they had for their horse and buggies. . . wait a minute, they didn't have those.  Oh well, it's victorian styled anyways.

A third sign, at the present seashell. . . presents a beautiful waste of beachspace, a 2000 room ampeitheatre that will be heated and open all year, and have no shows all winter because no one friggin goes there in the winter.  But thankfully, the offices for the bureaucrats will be larger and air conditioned.  The lifeguards they can barely afford each year, they'll have a brand new tower and lifeguard command center.  Yeehaw. . . like they'll do much good in the riptide.  I better shut up they'll go out and get friggin baywatch speed boats.

The fourth sign pisses me off.  It's down near the statue for the Mariners, the mermaid looking woman who is the spirit of the sea.. . . mind you they JUST REDID the entire area around it.  Installed nice metal/polymer fences to keep people from getting off the beach in an emergency.  They continued it to form a nice square around the statue, making it into a little park.  It's pretty.  So under the re-re-redevelopment, they're going to tear that all out, it's just a big mess. . . and make it into basically the same thing. . .but in a circle.  Circles are fun and they remind people to pay their meters. 

I'm going to take pics of those, they're just too hilarious to see. . . who needs parking?  Who needs revenue when you can just tax the shit out of everyone up north and out west to pay for it!?!

AntonLee

I went down and took pictures of the signage at the beach. . . put up by the town to show off what is going to be in the budget. . . note that the people who designed this thing don't even realize that people have faces AND that Hampton Beach police wear brown uniforms and not blue.  Was this generic?  Do the people who design the beach know what the beach is all about?  Have they spent an hour walking in the sand?  Have they stood in the middle of the beach to feel the wind from all sides?  Do they understand that the beach is called 'neglected' and 'forgotten about' by some of its winter residents? 

After showing this to a few residents (who are not liberty lovers), they wondered if they built such a monstrosity and covered the beach with buildings, all the while removing vital parking spaces YET AGAIN. . . would this mean they get plowed in the winter?  Or would this still be reserved for the 'connected types' who live IN town?





























note that in this photo the layout of the "new" and "proposed" buildings would be.  Correct me if I'm wrong, any townies that might see this. . . but wouldn't the order be 1)  South Beach Center (Reservation), 2) Haverhill Street Bathhouse (beginning of parking lot), 3)  THEN Seashell Complex (Casino), 4) Maritime Memorial. . . they can't even order the buildings correctly.  I'm an outsider, and I saw this and had to take a picture of it.