Long road for properties approved for sale in Swampscott

SWAMPSCOTT – The Town meeting vote that authorized selectmen to sell four town owned properties is just the first step in a process that could take up to four years to come to fruition.
Town Meeting voted to sell four town-owned properties at a special Town Meeting last week and it also approved zoning changes that would allow the four parcels to be developed.
Selectman Jill Sullivan, who also serves on the Town Building Oversight Committee, said the authorization to sell the former Phillips Beach Fire Station, Temple Israel property, the former middle school on Greenwood Avenue and the former senior center is only the first step in a lengthy process.
Sullivan said the committee is working on drafting Request for Proposals for each site while it is waiting for the Attorney General to approve the zoning changes that would make the properties developable.
?I think people who don’t eat live and breathe this don’t realize Town Meeting was just the beginning of the process,” she said. “There are a lot of steps and checkpoints involved. The committee is working on drafting the RFP’s. The AG’s office has up to 90 days to sign off on the zoning changes. I imagine we would issue all four RFP’s at once. We hope to have the RFP’s ready to be issued when we get the OK from the AG’s office on zoning.”
Sullivan said the RFP’s for each property would incorporate the design guidelines and developer qualifications that were discussed at Town Meeting. She said once the RFP is issued the potential developers would be given somewhere between 60 and 90 days to develop their response and submit it to the town.
?Our goal from the very beginning was to set up a scenario where we got uses that were appropriate for the community,” she said. “But we want developers to use their expertise to come up with a project we can all be proud of and we trust they will come up with creative proposals.”
Sullivan said once the town receives the RFP’s for the projects selectmen would name the finalists.
?By statute it’s the responsibility of the selectmen to select finalists but we’ve made every effort up to this point to conduct as open and public process as possible,” she said. “We want to continue in that vein by making it as open and public as possible. We have committed to holding public interviews with the finalists.”
Sullivan said when a developer has been selected the negotiation process would get under way and land development agreements would be entered into then the projects move into the permitting process.
?It’s a long process,” she said. “It would need to go to the Planning Board, site plan reviews and building permits. For the two larger properties we’re talking 18 months to two years before a shovel goes in the ground. It might be four years before the Temple Israel and middle school projects are complete.”