SWAMPSCOTT — Town Meeting members voted to rezone Vinnin Square, allowing for multifamily housing and mixed-use developments in the area, at the third night of Annual Town Meeting at the High School’s auditorium on Wednesday.
Planning Board Chair Angela Ippolito kicked off the third night of the town’s first three-session Town Meeting since 2005 by presenting Article 20. The article rezones the Swampscott Mall area at Vinnin Square from B3 to B4, the town’s most permissible zoning classification.
Ippolito said that rezoning the district would likely help with affordable housing, maintaining open space in town, and commercial growth.
“One of the changes that we’re making is that all the remaining B3 properties would now have a requirement that if they were to be redeveloped in any way, the retail would have to be replaced,” Ippolito said.
Additionally, any property in the new B4 district would have to retain at least 75 percent of its pre-existing gross ground-floor retail space. New developments in the district would have to reserve at least 25 percent of their ground-floor space for retail use.
Ippolito said the town planned to work with the parcel’s current owner, Andrew Rose, to design an outdoor mall-like space in Vinnin Square containing mixed-use complexes comprising retail ground floors and 250 housing units. She said the rezoning would increase annual revenue earned from the area from roughly $1.62 million to $2.2 million.
Town Meeting member Richard Frankel spoke first on the issue, and presented a slideshow demonstrating his concerns with the rezoning. He said he did not believe the town had enough time to “properly digest” the article and motioned to dismiss it without action.
“This was introduced at the last minute and it’s way too complex to approve at Town Meeting,” Frankel said.
Town Meeting member Thomas Driscoll spoke in favor of Frankel’s motion for dismissal, pointing to the fact that the Select Board had not yet voted to approve the zoning amendment.
Select Board member Peter Spellios said the Select Board did not vote to approve Article 20 due to procedural reasons, but that he supported the article. He added that increased population density in the town is inevitable, and that he would rather plan for housing developments in Vinnin Square than in residential neighborhoods.
“Andy [Rose] did not approach the town, the town approached him,” Spellios said. “This is not about revenue. The housing is coming regardless… there’s not a single building permit in this town that was planned, it was all opportunity.”
Planning Board member Erik Schneider opposed dismissing Article 20. He said by postponing action, the town would be missing out on an opportunity to convert a strip mall into a mixed-use area.
“We don’t want to foreclose an opportunity that will not exist once the owner has signed a long-term lease, as is his right to do,” Schneider said. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make a lasting positive long-term impact on the town.”
Frankel’s motion went to a standing vote and failed. After further discussion, Town Meeting voted in favor of Article 20.
As of press time, Town Meeting members had not yet voted on Articles 22 to 29, including a ban on single-use plastics, a bylaw amendment to prohibit feeding wildlife, a citizens petition in support of changing the state flag, a bylaw amendment to ban gas-powered leaf blowers, and a declaration of Saturdays as legal holidays.
