Swampscott Zoning Decision To Save Historic Richards-Pitman House Delayed

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — A Swampscott Zoning Board of Appeals decision that could decide the fate of the Revolutionary War-era Richards-Pitman House was delayed for at least a week on Tuesday night so ZBA members could gather more information on whether a variance applied to a Hillside Avenue lot more than 60 years ago is still applicable.

The Swampscott Affordable Housing Trust is backing the move of the house — once home to Revolutionary War hero Joseph Richards and Swampscott town founder Samuel Cloon Pitman — from its place on Pitman Road where it is slated to be destroyed to make way for the Elm Place 40B housing project to a small vacant lot on Hillside Avenue where it would then be renovated and sold as affordable housing.

With time of the essence ahead of the impending start of Elm Place construction, the Affordable Housing Trust and Swampscott Historical Society were granted the special ZBA meeting on Tuesday to determine whether the lot was buildable and whether it could obtain a frontage variance to allow the house to sit on the property.

(Also on Patch: Push To Save Swampscott's Historic Pitman House Faces Critical Test)

Multiple ZBA members lamented during the three-hour meeting that the time-sensitive nature of this house's looming demise without action was rushing a process that would otherwise play out over months amid the objection of dozens of abutters who oppose having the house — or, some admitted Tuesday night, essentially any liveable property — on the vacant lot.

The ZBA then voted on the one-week continuance to review the legal precedence for the lot as a buildable property based on a 1955 variance that Town Council Robin Stein said she believes never expired and then, if that is satisfied, to consider and vote on the frontage variance that could allow the move to take place if funding can be determined through the Affordable Housing Trust and other grants.

"We remain optimistic that with further information the ZBA will see that we have a legitimate argument for a frontage variance and we will be able to proceed in executing this extremely exciting project," Select Board member Doug Thompson, a proponent of saving the Richards-Pitman house, told Patch on Wednesday. "We're really excited about the fact that with such a housing shortage we can create additional housing units that are affordable for median-, or just-below-median-income-level families."

Thompson told Patch that believes the historic house — planned for a renovation that brings its exterior more in line with colonial-ear construction and appearance — will benefit the neighborhood despite the strong objection of several residents who showed up Tuesday to oppose the move.

Thompson said during the meeting that any delay in the decision put the house in peril given the short window before Elm Place construction is set to begin this fall. But he told Patch on Wednesday that a decision next week should allow the project to move forward to the phase of ultimately determining financial feasibility.

"We're hopeful that the information we provide next week will allow them to make a good, prudent decision in granting the variance," he 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. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)