Swampscott 'Friendly Taking' Completes Open Space Purchase

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Seven months ago at the annual town meeting, the Swampscott Select Board unveiled an ambitious plan to purchase three parcels of private property in town to become community use and open space.

On Tuesday, the Select Board met virtually to authorize the completion of the final acquisition of those properties when it unanimously voted $1.15 million to purchase the second of two parcels of land off Archer Street to go along with the purchase of the oceanfront Hawthorne by the Sea property for about $7 million that was completed earlier this month.

Select Board Chair Neal Duffy described the "friendly taking" of the final piece of Archer Street property during Tuesday's Select Board meeting as essentially an eminent domain acquisition that property owners P&K Funding Trust have voluntarily waived the ability to contest.

The Archer parcels were the subject of 40B proposals in recent months and years. Now, instead of the threat of another effort similar to the 160-unit apartment building rejected earlier this year, the land is set to be turned into permanent open space.

"This does round out the acquisition of three extraordinary investments that this generation is making in balancing Swampscott's challenges with development," Swampscott Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald said on Tuesday. "This truly does ensure that every part of the town gets that support.

"It certainly is a wonderful way to close out the year and move toward the future."

A 214-3 vote at a June special town meeting authorized the town to spend about $8 million combined on the three properties.

"This is something truly the entire town can celebrate," Fitzgerald said.

While the Archer properties were purchased for the express intent of keeping the parcels — which would be difficult to develop given their location and topography — as open space, a Jan. 28 community meeting will launch the public process to decide exactly what to do with the Hawthorne space.

"An overwhelming majority of the Select Board feels strongly that open space be a primary focus of this property but we also feel strongly that there be a robust conversation for everyone to bring their ideas," Duffy said in announcing the completion of the Hawthorne sale at the special town meeting earlier this month.

Select Board member David Grishman credited Fitzgerald with negotiating the "friendly taking" of the second Archer Street parcel as the final piece of the open space puzzle.

"When we received authorization from town meeting to acquire the property we seemed to be very far apart from a financial perspective (on closing the sale)," Grishman said on Tuesday. "But we kept the conversation going. We kept taking. We kept the lines of communication open.

"I think that's incredibly important and should not go unnoticed by this board as well as members of the public."

(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.)