Swampscott to discuss future of public buildings

SWAMPSCOTT – Artist studios and a performance space? Affordable housing? An elementary school? A park? All ideas are welcome at a public brainstorming session Jan. 28 to discuss the future of four town-owned properties.”Through the brainstorming sessions, we want to see if we can get some idea of consensus,” explained town planner Peter Kane. We’re hoping that the ideas to come out will be ways to reuse the buildings and adapt them rather than be teardowns. We want to ask how can we benefit from the structure that’s already there.”The Town of Swampscott owns four vacant buildings/properties whose fates are currently undetermined. Two are school buildings.The Machon Elementary School on Burpee Road, adjacent to Jackson Park and Swampscott High School, closed due to budget cuts in 2007.The former middle school on Greenwood Avenue also closed in 2007, after the new high school on Essex Street opened and the middle school moved to the former high school building on Forest Avenue. The property was slated for redevelopment as condominiums until a successful lawsuit by neighbors.Two properties are on Burrill Street. The former Swampscott Police headquarters dates to 1938 and is located adjacent to the fire station. It was vacated when the new station on Humphrey Street opened in August 2013. Across the street, the former senior center has remained vacant since 2007 when a new facility was included in the new high school.The question is what to do with the properties. It’s something that the town has wrestled with in the past – resulting in committees being formed, projects proposed and contentious Town Meeting discussions and votes … remember Temple Israel?So the town decided to take a different approach.”I think we’ve learned from the planning process, and in the past with committees dealing with these issues…is that what really works well is – when we’re trying to build consensus and trying to solicit ideas – what works well is having public hearings,” Planning Board member Angela Ippolito said Thursday. “We’re going to try to really get some quality feedback and ideas and hope it will drive some new ideas and interest and help us get this done.”Organizers have scheduled a Town Building Reuse Forum – essentially a public brainstorming session – to discuss whether the buildings can be reused and renovated, whether they should be sold, and any other ideas.Kane said he envisions having participants at the meeting divide into small groups that are focused on one of the four properties. After a brainstorming session, each group will present their top ideas for wider discussion. Kane said he hopes that a consensus will develop as several groups propose similar options for a specific property – affordable senior housing at the former senior center, for instance, or a new elementary school at the Greenwood Avenue School.Other brainstorming sessions could follow, depending on participants’ feedback.Historical Commission member Sylvia Belkin said the forum is a good way for townspeople to not only offer input, but learn about what others have proposed for the buildings.”I hope as many people will go to these meetings to share these ideas,” Belkin said. “Because that’s how we move forward.”