The Planning Board and residents shared their thoughts on a potential 40R District around the commuter rail following a presentation by town staff, discussing the need for walkability and concerns about density in the area.

“The purpose of this proposed 40R District is not to force as much housing as possible into this area. I want to make this very clear,” said Senior Town Planner Christa McGaha. “It is to set guidelines to control the scale, type and style of development around the train station to allow for more walkable mixed uses.”

Smart Growth overlay districts, or 40R Districts, encourage housing and mixed-use development, expand housing choices and promote community-focused planning, according to the state. Swampscott’s Vinnin Square already is a Smart Growth district. However, McGaha said another overlay currently applies to the Vinnin Square area, making the Smart Growth district inactive. The proposal builds on the Swampscott Master Plan 2035.

“We want it to still feel like Swampscott,” McGaha said. “We don’t want this area to change drastically and feel like a different place. We have the opportunity through materials and standards to actually dictate what can go in and make it a more walkable area.”

McGaha noted that Swampscott’s commuter rail area already has many Smart Growth aspects, such as the direct access to transit, walkability to neighborhoods and nearby businesses, existing commercial and mixed-use activity on Columbia Street and Railroad Avenue, existing affordable housing and an opportunity to accommodate future growth without extending development into less-connected areas of town.

Chapter 40R allows Massachusetts communities to create zoning near transit, downtowns, commercial centers and “other appropriate locations,” McGaha said. 

McGaha said a 40R District allows qualifying residential and mixed-use development as-of-right through a local plan approval process. The town would also be able to establish design standards and require affordable housing units, though the requirement can be less than that of a 40B project, which is brought forward from a developer rather than the municipality’s creation of a framework.

The proposed area includes two affordable housing properties: Duncan Terrace (40 units) and Doherty Circle (44 units). A 40R District could allow for the 1960 and 1961-built developments to become more modern and house more elderly residents, McGaha said.

Planning Board Chair Joseph Sheridan noted this can help provide a “path of less resistance” for developers that will guide the need for affordable housing.

“It would help us get closer to the threshold,” Sheridan said. 

A 40R District also provides state financial incentives tied to district adoption and housing production. Communities that form a Smart Growth district receive a one-time payment up to $600,000 based on the number of housing units located within the zone. For each additional housing unit built after the district is established, the state awards $3,000 to the municipality.

“The basic idea is to plan ahead for change in an area that change makes sense rather than waiting for individual development proposals or 40B proposals and reacting to them one at a time as they come in,” McGaha said. “The goal here is not to have development everywhere. The goal is to establish thoughtful rules about where change makes sense and equally as important what that change looks like.”

McGaha said potential goals for the area can include active ground-floor shops, restaurants and services with housing above the commercial spaces. Buildings could be oriented toward sidewalks, with trees and lighting around pedestrian-focused amenities.

Resident Jeff Ippolito expressed concerns about the density of the area.

“If we start adding residential on top of it, now we’re going to have people looking down into people’s yards,” Ippolito said. “There’s a density in a lot of these places that I think needs to be considered, also noise. You want to have retail and cafes – I think that’s a great idea, when you walk off the commuter rail there’s a nice bakery – but also noise given the proximity you have to residential areas…I don’t want noise emanating from the commercial into my property late at night.”

Gina Frey, who said she has lived in the potential 40R District for most of her time in town, noted the “ambient noise of buildings.”

“I noticed over time the neighborhood is louder, not just neighbor sounds but the ambient noise that comes from more density in buildings and spaces,” Frey said.

The town’s initial proposal would allow for 42 dwelling units per acre within the 40R District. That would be more than Duncan Terrace (28 dwelling units per acre) and Doherty Circle (38.6 dwelling units per acre) but less than Veterans Crossing (48.5 dwelling units per acre) and The Westcott (81.5 dwelling units per acre).

In addition to mixed-use and housing development, the town is also proposing several parking options within the potential 40R District, including surface, structured and underground parking.

“Parking is something we know is needed in this area,” McGaha said.

Resident James Andrews said more infrastructure needs to be in place to support parking and walkability in the area before additional development occurs. He said it is already “frustrating” to deal with the “mess” caused by a lack of parking, particularly around The Westcott.

Planning Board Member Angela Ippolito said parking is already an issue for residents in the area.

“I really strongly support the moves we are making toward having a walkable neighborhood that’s close to the public transit, something where people might not need a car to get around, something that’s a bit more affordable so that someone like me could keep living in town and have access to things that are within walking distance and can get into Boston,” resident Collin McRae said.

The proposed bylaw was removed from the warrant that would have gone to Town Meeting to allow for further discussion and research.