How To Have A Say In The Transformation Of Beverly City Hall

BEVERLY, MA — Beverly residents looking to have a say in the first major renovation of City Hall in nearly a century are invited to a public forum on the pending project on Tuesday.

The forum will be held in City Council Chambers on the third floor of City Hall at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.

Boston-based Finegold Alexander Architects was recently chosen to design and reconstruct City Hall.

Beverly City Hall was built in 1785 as the Andrew Cabot Mansion and was converted to Beverly City Hall in 1841. The last significant updates to the building were in the 1930s.

The renovation is expected to last about two years with the City Council approving the $8 million "friendly taking" of the Family Dollar site at 218-226 Cabot Street, which had been slated for development as market-rate housing, to serve as the home to City Hall operations during the renovation before being redeveloped into affordable housing when the renovation is completed.

Mayor Mike Cahill told the Council that the proposal was the best way to solve the issue of parking, city office space during the renovation and redevelopment for affordable housing rather than the alternatives his office explored.

"We did evaluate several other parcels in the downtown," he said, "including church parcels, and
nothing else could meet the combination of needs together.

"We saw a couple of combinations that might have come in at a lower price tag but they couldn't provide the amount of parking, they couldn't provide anywhere near the amount of housing opportunity."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)