SWAMPSCOTT — The town voted to amend Article 25 during night two of Annual Town Meeting, which relates to the town’s zoning bylaws, in order to be compliant with the zoning laws previously signed into effect by Gov. Maura Healey in August 2024.
Planning Board Chair Ted Dooley spoke before the audience on the background of the article and the possible changes that the amendment would bring.
Dooley explained that Healey had previously signed into law the Affordable Homes Act, which amended the state building code to allow Accessory Dwelling Units (ADU) up to 900 square feet, to exist by right in any single-family zoning district.
“The purpose of this is to be compliant with the language set forth by the governor in 2024,” Dooley said. “The reason in doing so, is that the Planning Board felt strongly that, since Town Meeting has been ahead of the curve, and we authorized ADUs before the state, we wanted to ensure that our local bylaw was consistent with the language, and read consistently with anything that could be adopted by state law.”
Then, Dooley elaborated on the changes to the bylaw. “The proposed changes, many of which are preempted by state law, and one of which we have local control over, are summarized here,” Dooley said. “We’re eliminating all off-street parking requirements that are proposed for ADUs within half a mile of any transit station.”
He added that it also removes any design standards that cannot otherwise be applied to any construction of a single or two-family dwelling. The owner-occupancy requirement would also be removed as one of the changes.
Another change, Dooley noted, was that the article also prohibits the rental of ADUs for a period of less than 30 consecutive days.
“This is a provision of local control that state law allows each town to adopt. The Planning Board felt strongly that it was to keep in spirit with the spirit of the law, which was to provide more housing options, that prohibiting short-term rentals was something Swampscott should consider adopting,” Dooley said.
Town Meeting member Margaret Somer approached the mic during the discussion segment for the article, where she expressed concern about the town following what she called “mega-trends” — where people are buying up housing for Airbnb-style homes.
“So much housing has become short-term rentals… So these are kinds of mega-trends that are affecting housing, and I don’t want to see us go in that direction,” Somer said. “The owner occupancy requirement was intended to keep housing as ADUs… Once you take out the owner occupancy requirement, it’s not really an ADU, it’s a two-family house.”
Dooley added that the first three bullet points he listed are technically already in effect by state law. “The only option for local control here is the prohibition of rentals for less than 30 consecutive days,” he said. “So, in practice, the first three bullets are already in effect regarding our local zoning bylaws.”
Resident Polly Titcomb asked if the town has the discretion to enforce resident permit parking stickers in certain areas within half a mile of the transit station.
“I believe any resident of an ADU would be able to register to vote at the ADU, so therefore, they’d be eligible for any residential preference for things like voting or parking,” Dooley responded.
If a resident were to propose building an ADU in their backyard, they would be allowed to by right, but if they seek a second ADU, then the resident must seek permission to do so through the local Zoning Board of Appeals.
Resident Aaron Berdofe also approached the mic to express his support for the article.
“I just want to rise in support of this article, mostly because we are in a housing shortage, and we need all the housing we can get,” Berdofe said. “Big companies can come swoop in and buy places because there’s not enough supply and they have cash — we build more units, we get rid of a lot of those issues.”
Berdofe said he supports the new state requirements is that it “makes it so much easier” to build an ADU. “We need more housing diversity in Swampscott… The vast majority of housing in Swampscott is single-family homes, and you can only build that — this isn’t changing the character, this isn’t changing anything.”
