SWAMPSCOTT — A long-underused space could soon become a revitalized oceanfront park and the public is invited to share their visions for the park this weekend.
This Saturday, July 25, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., the public is invited to Johnson Park on Puritan Road across from Smith Lane to share their input about what they would like the park to look like, and provide feedback for town staff and landscape architects from Tufts University’s Urban and Environmental Policy and Programming, who will present schematic plans for the park.
All attendees should wear masks and keep a social distance of at least six feet between themselves and others.
Johnson Park is essentially a blank slate, a piece of open lawn on the near Lincoln House Point. Marzie Galazka, Swampscott director of community and economic development, there are many recreational opportunities for the spot because it is on the waterfront.
“Johnson Park is on the waterfront, and our goal is to build on the plans of the former town planner here and Tufts,” Galazka said.
“We are going in to do a full redesign,” she said. “We are really looking forward to hearing from the residents and hearing their ideas.”
Renovations could include adding structures for aesthetic and seating purposes, putting bathrooms at the site, and landscaping. Saturday, the team that has been working on potential schemes for the park will share images of different structures that could be erected, and explain their benefits.
Following Saturday’s meeting, the topic will be deliberated by the Open Space and Recreation Committee. Eventually, a new scheme for Johnson Park will have to go before the Planning Board and finally the Select Board for approval.
“We want to catch residents and talk about their preferred structures and visions,” Galazka said. “We want people to tell us what they want to see. It’s a tremendous community asset having a park so close to the water.”
The idea of reinventing Johnson Park was brought up in 2013, when the Open Space and Recreation Committee recommended the site be developed as a park because of a lack of remaining free space in town.
Then, in 2016, Peter Kane, then the town planner and community development director, advocated for the “piece of lawn” next to Eiseman’s Beach to be repurposed after never having “any treatment or identity,” and initiated the town’s partnership with Tufts University graduate students to make the park fully accessible and revamp it as a proper oceanside recreational area.
Galazka said the site is “historical” and should be put to better use. In 1969, the New Ocean House Hotel on the lot burned down in a fire, and Swampscott subsequently bought the land, but has barely developed it.
For more information and to share ideas by email, contact Galazka at [email protected].
