Swampscott is planning to do a plan

SWAMPSCOTT – With officials acknowledging the town is too often reactive rather than proactive, the town is beginning its first Master Plan in nearly 50 years, and will be seeking volunteers to help the effort.”It helps the community with understanding and coming to a consensus about what (it) wants,” Peter Kane, Swampscott town planner, said Monday. “It covers a lot of different topics. Some of the recommendations could be things that the town may need to think about in terms of capital improvement projects, then some of the recommendations might be zoning changes, policy changes, or things that the town wants to do in the future.”Kane explained that a Master Plan is a multi-subject report that evaluates municipal assets and offers suggestions and recommended steps for how the town should move forward in the next five to 10 years. Topics examined include housing, historic and cultural resources, open space, public facilities, transportation and circulation, economic development, sustainability and land use and zoning.While committees have, in past years, studied individual topics that the plan will include – such as reviewing zoning bylaws, or studying a potential historic district – Swampscott last approved a Master Plan in 1971.The process to write a new plan officially began when Town Meeting approved $125,000 for a plan last May. Selectmen in January approved the Metropolitan Area Planning Council in Boston as consultants for the effort. Members of the planning council will also work with a committee of local residents and representatives of different boards in town to write the plan. Kane said he expected the committee to be formed by the beginning of March.Selectmen last week stressed the importance of the planning effort while hearing a report from the Capital Improvement Committee on the year’s capital requests.”The way we do capital requests now and the way we spend money is based on needs, but we don’t have a vision,” Capital Improvement Committee Chairman Ray Patalano said at last week’s selectmen’s meeting. He noted that three of the town’s six major departments requested technology improvements; but none of the requests were coordinated. “It’s almost like triage in a hospital.”Meanwhile, the director of public works was fixing a school elevator, and there was no town employee solely dedicated to overseeing all work on capital projects or dedicated to information technology, Town Administrator Tom Younger said.Board of Selectmen Chairman Matt Strauss recommended the master plan include a five-year capital plan, which should be evaluated by members of the finance committee and the school department.Kane said that the plan would enable the town to better guide development and give developers guidelines for what kind of projects the town would like to build.In an interview later last week, Strauss said the plan should give the town a unique opportunity to really evaluate its needs.”There are people who want a five-year master plan yesterday,” Strauss said. “But to do it just to do it is not a good idea. If it takes a little longer, it takes a little longer.”