The culvert near the future Veterans Crossing development has made planning “complicated” for B’nai B’rith Community Development.

“It makes things complicated unfortunately,” Zoning Board Chair Heather Roman said. “The culvert is only moving for this project.”

At the 2023 Town Meeting, Swampscott residents approved the acquisition and redevelopment of 12-24 Pine St. for veteran housing. B’nai B’rith Housing responded to Swampscott’s request for proposal (RFP) to develop the Pine Street site in August of 2023. A land agreement was signed in December of 2024. 

The proposed Veterans Crossing project includes 41 one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartments, each approximately 600 sq. ft, according to a presentation by Senior Project Manager Holly Grace. The apartment layouts include full kitchens with dishwashers. About two dozen units would be available to households earning 30% of the area median income (AMI), while 18 units would serve households earning 60% of AMI, according to Senior Project Manager Yara Vergucht.

Soldier On is expected to work with B’nai B’rith to support veteran housing.

The town has recently held neighborhood meetings on the proposed site layout. Neighbors raised concerns that people might “use Pine Street as a parking lot” and that lighting would spill across the street. At the most recent B’nai B’rith and Zoning Board meeting, the topic of discussion has been around the culverts and peer reviews.

“We have had a busy month,” Roman said.

Since the meeting last month, Roman said there has been “a lot of back and forth” between the town’s peer review team and B’nai B’rith’s engineering team. In particular, the culvert design — a tunnel-like structure beneath the road that allows water to flow and prevents flooding and erosion — has been the focus of design reviews. The existing culvert interferes with the site’s planned layout.

To safely construct the building and parking area, the culvert would need to be relocated farther into the parking area to avoid interfering with the project’s footprint. The current culvert could potentially create challenges for the foundations, draining and eventual long-term maintenance issues. Clearing the culvert’s path from vehicle access areas and sidewalks can also make it easier to grade the land correctly and lay other utilities without conflicts.

“The final culvert design – including bends, wall geometry, connections and final culvert dimensions – will be developed collaboratively by the project civil engineer, the selected precast manufacturer and the site general contractor,” Hancock wrote to the peer reviewers on December 30. “This level of design cannot be completed until the comprehensive permit has been issued and the project proceeds to bidding.”

Engineers proposed increasing the culvert’s width and reducing the severity of its bends at Tuesday’s Zoning Board meeting. Hancock Associates said they will be the civil engineers on record moving forward, and VM Consulting Engineers (VMCE) will be the peer reviewers.

VMCE completed a response to comments and a second peer review of the culvert relocation, dated January 7. Hancock Associates said at the Zoning Board meeting that VMCE will stay as the peer reviewer through the granting process as well.

“The design that’s been addressed so far is pretty typical for a project – maybe it’s more advanced,” said Attorney John Smolak, of Smolak & Vaughan LLP on behalf of B’nai B’rith, adding that the housing project cannot move forward completely without the “full separate” culvert relocation project the town is undertaking. “This project cannot proceed unless this culvert is moved.”

Roman acknowledged that without the culvert relocation, B’nai B’rith’s proposal would require a “different building.” She said the town has applied for grant money and will get the bids to move the culvert.

“There is a little debate what percentage of this is town, what percent would be exasperated by this building,” Roman said, in response to a question around the requirements from Select Board Member Mary Ellen Fletcher. “We can’t force and impose something but an agreement can be made that can benefit both the project and the town.”

Smolak noted that if anything does change with the town’s plans for the culvert, the group will need to return to the Zoning Board.

“We’re going to do the best with the information we have now to move forward,” Roman said. 

VMCE brought up the “prolonged extended use” that will take place on the main breaker due to the increased capacity within the Veterans Crossing building, which may compromise the 6-inch pipe. The peer review asked for an upgrade from New Ocean to the new project.

Hancock Associates, however, said that will be “a substantial amount of work.” The senior housing complex is expected to generate an average daily flow of about 4,510 gallons.

Roman said this is why it is important for the group to “put money aside for the portion” that is under their purview within the larger overall town improvement project.

“There also may be a work around that hasn’t been reviewed yet,” Roman said. “I think all of these options need to be on the table.”

Roman said there will be two more meetings on the project prior to the Zoning Board’s vote. The Zoning Board will reconvene next on Tuesday, February 3.

This is not B’nai B’rith’s first housing project in Swampscott. The group developed the Machon, an affordable senior housing complex developed in 2021. The Machon has since won the 2022 National Vanguard Award and the 2022 Massachusetts Apartment Association Senior Community of the Year.