“The preliminary design was coming in in a way that I think the board felt hadn’t been fully vetted because we were trying to get it done by the [purchase and sale] deadline,” Town Administrator Thomas Mayo said.
He said the town has until Nov. 30 to buy the property, which abuts the Hingham Shipyard.
The initial design by Kaestle Boos Associates called for an approximately 50,000-square-foot, three-story building and parking garage estimated to cost $39.6 million. The design provided about three times as much space as the existing police headquarters and North Fire Station that the new building would replace.
Opposition to the project surfaced among parents of school-age children, who criticized spending so much money on a new public safety building during the pandemic instead of investing more in the schools.
“I think it is outrageous that this project is even being considered,” said Susan Kiernan O’Horo, a