Swampscott To Hold Special Town Meeting On Hawthorne Purchase

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — A special town meeting has been called for June 14 where the Swampscott Select Board will ask meeting members to authorize the purchase and funding for three parcels of open space in the town as well as a multi-family overlay zoning district that will allow for the development of the former Glover House property.

The Select Board announced the plans during last week's annual town meeting and Select Board meetings, which include the purchase of 9.5 acres of open space on Archer Street and an agreement to purchase the 1.47-acre Hawthorne by the Sea property for $7 million.

"We are talking about three parcels in the mind of the Select Board it is one decision," Select Board member Peter Spellios said. "We do not view any of the parcels as independent of the others. Our support for one of them is for all of them.

"It is important that we reach every corner of our community."

The plan also includes rezoning the property of the former Glover House Restaurant, which closed more than 20 years ago, into a multi-family overlay district that can be developed into 96 units of dwelling — which will include affordable housing — in Swampscott, with another 44 units in Marblehead. Spellios said Marblehead will have to approve the portion of the development that is within its town limits.

Eighteen of the 96 Swampscott units will be designated as "affordable housing" — helping the town get closer to the 10 percent inventory threshold necessary to avoid being susceptible to 40B housing proposals that are allowed to avoid many local zoning bylaws.

"For well over a year the Select Board has met to discuss potential open space acquisitions in our town and very early on in the conversations we identified the parcels we're talking about tonight as priority parcels," new Swampscott Select Board Chair Neal Duffy said.

The Archer parcels include a 5-acre parcel that will cost the town about $400,000 and a 4.5-acre parcel that will cost about $465,000. This area, which has been the subject of 40B proposals in recent months and years, will be designated as permanent open space.

The Select Board had expressed doubts during the 40B hearings whether the spaces could be safely developed given the neighborhood's topography and infrastructure.

The Hawthorne property includes the 1.47-acre parcel with the restaurant, parking lot and surrounding area. Spellios said the Athanas family had agreed to sell the property for the assessed value of $7 million.

He said as part of the agreement the family will be given the opportunity to operate the restaurant through October 2023 when the town would then take over operation of the entire property. He said if the sale is authorized then the town would hold public forums to determine the best use of the highly desirable area along the waterfront.

"What this all tells us is that the opportunity is huge," Spellios said.

(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.)