SWAMPSCOTT — Town officials have submitted the town’s Section 3A Action Plan for MBTA communities.
“This is part of state legislation called 3A Zoning,” Marissa Meaney, the town’s land use coordinator, said. “It requires every municipality in the state of Massachusetts to provide a designated district that would allow multi-family housing by right.”
According to the state’s website, Section 3A’s purpose is “to encourage the production of multi-family housing.”
Towns and cities that are considered MBTA communities, meaning those that have at least one MBTA station, have to assign a district located near “some sort of nexus of transportation,” Meaney said. Swampscott, as a commuter rail community, qualifies.
“We have to designate a certain square footage or acreage area of a district within a 0.5-mile radius of the commuter rail station that has to be multi-family by right,” Meaney said. “20 acres of land has to be designated for multi-family housing by right. 20 percent of that 20 acres has to be located within a 0.5-mile radius of the commuter rail stations.”
Meaney said that officials chose the Vinnin Square commercial district on Paradise Road as the area of land in Swampscott’s action plan.
“The Vinnin Square area is long overdue for economic transformation,” the submitted action plan said. “It can support mixed use redevelopment.”
The state requires the town to list “non-housing characteristics” in its action plan that are important for Swampscott to consider for its 3A zoning district. Swampscott officials chose walkability, bike lanes, street retail, bus connections, and a street tree canopy.
The action plan said that Vinnin Square’s walkability could be improved.
“Given that Vinnin Square is located on a state highway, traffic is heavy and the pedestrian crossings are few and far between,” it said.
“The district is an old 1950s-style strip mall, with retail set back at least 100 feet to allow for parking, so seeing buildings brought flesh to the sidewalk to increase pedestrian accessibility would be preferred,” the plan added.
For bike lanes, the plan said that there are currently none in the Vinnin Square area.
While it said that the Massachusetts Department of Transportation is currently installing some bike lanes, they are only in the Vinnin Square commercial district.
“We need better connectivity across town and to other points of interest,” the plan said.
With regards to street retail, the plan said “apart from bringing the buildings to the sidewalk, mixed-use buildings would enhance the district and provide more opportunities for retail.”
Currently, Vinnin Square is almost made up entirely of “big-box stores” that the plan said do “little to accommodate today’s changes in retail.”
For bus connections, Paradise Road would have to be widened but having a bus rapid transit lane running through the district would improve accessibility.
“Additionally, the current bus stops lack both benches and bus shelters,” the plan said.
For street tree canopy, “trees appear sparsely planted and not always contiguous. Large gaps between plantings give the illusion that a canopy doesn’t even exist.”
“The great thing is that in Vinnin Square multifamily per our zoning bylaw is already designated by right, so there is likely not a whole lot of work that has to be done with that particular district,” Meaney said.
Now that the action plan has been submitted, the next step is writing a new zoning bylaw, which the town is working with Bohler Engineering on.
As a commuter rail community, Swampscott’s deadline to adopt the new bylaw is Dec. 31, 2024.
“Because Swampscott is a Town Meeting community, it means that the bylaw changes will be voted on by our 300 something Town Meeting members,” Meaney said.
At this year’s Town Meeting, Meaney the plan is to have a sample of the language that will be used in the bylaw presented so those attending the meeting will understand what the changes would look like.
After this, she said the town would work with any Swampscott residents interested in providing input through “a sort of public engagement process.”
“Then, we would continue to work on those changes with Bohler to then bring about the official language for our annual town meeting in May of 2024 to a vote,” Meaney said.
