Swampscott awaiting word on zoning changes

SWAMPSCOTT – The town is moving forward with plans to sell four town-owned properties that Town Meeting authorized the sale of in November.Selectman Jill Sullivan, who also serves as chairman of the Town Building Oversight Committee, said the committee is waiting for approval from the Attorney General’s Office regarding proposed zoning changes, which would make the properties developable.”We can’t go ahead with issuing RFPs (Requests for Proposals) until the AG OKs the zoning changes,” she said. “I expect it will be at least another month before we hear from the AG regarding the zoning.”While waiting for the green light from the state, Sullivan said the committee has been working on the drafts of the four RFPs – one for each property. Sullivan said the RFPs for each property incorporate the design guidelines and developer qualifications that were discussed at Town Meeting.”The drafts are almost complete,” she said. “We’re going to continue working on refining the RFPs and send them to town counsel for review so we’re ready to go when we hear from the AG’s office. We expect the RFPs to be complete and ready to be issued in March or April.”Sullivan 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 was only the first step in what could be a lengthy process.Sullivan 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 very beginning was to get re-uses that are appropriate for community,” she said. “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 proposals from developers, the selectmen would select 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, so we have committed to holding public interviews with the finalists.”Sullivan said once a developer is selected for a project, the negotiation process would get underway and land development agreements would be entered into, then the project would 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.”She said it could take a couple of years for the Temple Israel and former middle school projects to get underway.”It could take up to four years for those projects to be complete,” she said. “The committee is confident once they are complete it will be something the town can be proud of.”