Swampscott Pickleball Grant Proposal Fails Second Town Meeting Vote

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — For the second time in four months, proposed pickleball courts at Swampscott's Phillips Park got the thumbs down from town meeting members who voiced parking, noise and flooding concerns as primary reasons against accepting a $56,000 grant that would have partially funded the estimated $103,870 price tag for the fourth courts.

In December, needing a two-thirds majority for passage to bond the town's portion of the courts, those in favor of the courts fell a handful of votes shy with a 65.6 percent majority. During Monday night's special town meeting, the article was brought back to a vote requesting the use of town surplus funds — or so-called "free cash" — in a move that only required a simple majority for passage.

But by a vote of 96-88, town meeting members rejected the funding.

Since the PARC grant was awarded based on the Phillips Park location the courts would have to go there to qualify for the matching funding, though the exact location of the courts would be determined during a public design process.

There was about an hour of debate on the courts with those in favor saying that it was the best — and perhaps only — location in the town to build the courts on public land, but a majority of speakers opposed citing concerns about the fixed structures in an area of town prone to flooding, with recent floods in what the Federal Emergency Management Agency considers a 100-year flood zone as evidence that the area is becoming more flood-prone amid climate change.

A roll call vote was required with the margin being too close to call based on a hand vote alone.

Another contentious item — town election reform that would have included a proposal to back state legislation allowing 16- and 17-year-olds to vote in local elections — was pulled from the warrant in favor of creating a 13-member Town Election Commission to study the proposed changes and report back to the town on its findings by Oct. 31.

The proposed changes, geared toward increasing election turnout and resident engagement, also included moving the annual town election to a series of two weekends in June and after the annual town meeting.

A proposal to push a home-rule petition at the state level to allow Swampscott out of its Chapter 61B requirement to provide a tax exemption to Tedesco Country Club also passed but will now require legislative action for implementation.

Town Administrator Sean Fitzgerald said taxing the portion of the course in Swampscott at assessed residential values would have added $174,997 to the town's coffers for 2023 and more than $1.9 million over the past 10 years.

Town meeting members also voted to increase the hotel room tax from 4 percent to 6 percent — which would become more of a factor upon the completion of the boutique hotel at the Hadley School location in 2027 since the town currently has limited lodging space.

An article to adopt a specialized energy code for new construction to become carbon neutral by 2050 also passed easily.

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