New direction for Swampscott street

SWAMPSCOTT – Town Meeting focused on its downtown streets late Monday night and into Tuesday, easily approving a zoning proposal to try and make Humphrey Street more pedestrian-friendly but debating, and then rejecting, a sign bylaw. It also approved an end to the winter on-street parking ban.”Are we trying to eliminate art?” asked Whitney White in opposing a proposal to require signs in the downtown have a black background. “I look at this and find we’re trying to eliminate art in the downtown, and I find it very pathetic.”After much debate concerning an artificial turf field as the hour approached 10 p.m. Monday (and after The Item deadline), Town Meeting breezed through several articles before concluding with a proposal by the Planning Board to create an overlay zoning district along Humphrey Street.The district is meant to encourage mixed-use, unified and compact, pedestrian-oriented development in the historic downtown of Swampscott. It will extend along Humphrey Street from Monument to Commonwealth avenues and includes Blaney Street and a portion of Redington Street.Town Planner Pete Kane said the discussion at Town Meeting involved only two questions before the measure was passed by a show of hands.But debates on other measures affecting downtown generated debate when Town Meeting reconvened Tuesday evening.First up was an article proposing that all signs in the downtown business district have a black background. The sign bylaw already limits the size of the sign and requires it have gold lettering and perimeter lines. And Kane presented the article as something codifying “common practice” in the town. But having the background be black was apparently taking it too far for some Town Meeting members.”This is another layer of regulations for businesses,” said Town Meeting member Charlie Patsios.He said that it cost $450 and, for most people, a lawyer to argue for a waiver to the requirement, and this was precisely what businesses didn’t want to deal with.The proposal was rejected.Town Meeting similarly debated a proposal to eliminate the winter on-street parking ban, which will primarily affect residents in the more dense areas of town. Town Moderator Joe Markarian excused himself from his usual Town Meeting role to present the proposal, which he argued eliminated a ban that was unnecessary with improved weather updates and the age of robocalls to cell phones, Internet postings and other forms of communication during a snow emergency.Markarian acknowledged police anticipated a decrease of about $30,000 from annual stickers (which are available to those who need an exception to the ban during non-snow emergencies) and ticket fees. And residents had questions about how this would work in a winter similar to the one we all just experienced. But after representatives of the public works, police, fire department and finance committee all said they had no objections to the proposal, the matter was approved.”Once a snow emergency is over, the starting point is you can park on the street, rather than starting it out with you can’t park on the street,” Markarian said. He also added it would be nice to be able to park outside his home in the winter.