Swampscott Elm Place 40B Project Zoning Board Vote Delayed

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — A proposed end to the half-year-long public hearing and possible Swampscott Zoning Board of Appeals vote on whether to approve the 120-unit Elm Place housing project was delayed on Tuesday amid uncertainty about renewed sewer and water table questions, as well as open space concerns raised by the town and abutters' counsel.

WinnDevelopment offered to return with answers to the questions in time for additional peer review before a May 9 meeting and agreed to extend the 180-day window for the public hearing two weeks until June 14, with both developer representatives and Zoning Board officials agreeing that a decision on whether or not to support the project must be made sooner rather than later.

"We are confident the few remaining issues can be resolved through discussion among the experts and/or conditions from the ZBA," WinnDevelopment spokesman Ed Cafasso said in a statement to Patch. "Our hope is that this is the final delay. The plan for Elm Place is not only legally appropriate for the site but, with one exception, also has been endorsed by the town’s own peer review experts as a smart, well-designed proposal to bring badly needed transit-oriented affordable housing to Swampscott.

"We have worked hard, at great expense in time and money, to meet the town more than halfway throughout this 18-month journey. We look forward to wrapping up this process and earning Board approval as quickly as possible."

While it has been hoped that Tuesday's meeting would be the last public meeting of the long process, both the Board and Developers agreed to at least one more meeting with several pieces of new memos coming in during the final days and hours before the meeting took place.

"It's a pattern," Zoning Board member Heather Roman said. "We're getting all our information the day before our meetings through the whole process. I've said this before, but we're always sitting here on the fly where no one wants to comment because they haven't had time to review it.

"We just need to get the information."

One new question was regarding the water table that was measured at higher than the plans indicated —and may require some redesign when it comes to the proposed underpass to the Rail Trail under the train tracks. Another question was the need for further clarification on the piping's ability o handle the stormwater flow.

Swampscott Fire Chief Graham Archer said that the complex did meet his fire access requirements, while WinnDevelopment representatives produced a letter from the MBTA indicating that the proposed underpass to the Rail Trail is feasible.

When public comment was allowed at the end of the meeting, more concerns were raised about the scale of the project and potential parking issues, which developers argue the peer reviewers have already determined are sufficient.

Because of the 40B nature of the project — which provides the "essential town need" of more affordable housing since Swampscott falls well below the state threshold of 10 percent (3.7 percent) — developers are able to bypass many of the town's zoning bylaws. The Zoning Board of Appeals, which has joined the Select Board in public voicing objections to the scope of the project and their lack of authority over it with its 40B nature over the last half-year, can only vote down the project based on a limited amount of public safety and utility concerns.

WinnDevelopment has proposed that 49 of the units be priced at a below-market rate, which is well above the 40B's statute requirement of 20 percent, but developers have argued that only a project of that size makes the financing work to provide that many units at the lower price point.

Eighty-four of the 120 units — 70 percent of the units — are one-bedroom or studio apartments.

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)