Swampscott residents question future of downtown

SWAMPSCOTT – During a presentation of the Vision and Downtown Action Plan, several Swampscott residents questioned if revitalizing the downtown area should be a focus given present town developments.Resident Brett Laker said with the town’s likely decision to do away with neighborhood schools after the Town Meeting vote for the new elementary school’s feasibility study, Swampscott’s culture would move away from being pedestrian-friendly.Laker said the days of walking children to school and then stopping by a downtown coffee shop would be over. “It’s not going to be a community area,” he said. “People will be struggling to get across town to drop the kids off and getting to work in Boston.”Laker wasn’t the only one not sure of how to move on at the presentation Monday night at the Swampscott Public Library. About 20 people, including Planning Board and Historic Commission members, listened to Sam Cleaves, senior regional planner with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council, present the recommendations of the vision and downtown action plan, comprised over several studies and surveys of residents and business owners over the last decade to revitalize the downtown culture. The plans took into account using the beaches and commuter rail as resources to draw consumers to the area, and also made recommendations to make the area less congested with traffic.”There’s good stuff you can do pretty cheap even if you don’t touch the zoning,” said Cleaves. He mentioned even just painting new crosswalks, adding bike lanes and more bike racks around town as some ideas that would ease up the traffic. The town could choose to turn the vision plan into a full-out master plan that would cost $100,000, but Cleaves said it wouldn’t be necessary. “Forget about zoning for a little while. Just build something and you’ll feel better.”Laker said he wasn’t sure about the revitalization working with the new school set-up. “Maybe if you build it, they’ll come, but I’m not sure it’s going to be the center of community,” he said.For now, recommendations will go to Town Planner Pete Kane, who will take them back to the Planning Board to review the action items for a larger planning initiative for Town Meeting. Kane said it will be determined how both Town Meeting voting members and the boards feel about the items.Kait Taylor can be reached at [email protected].