Town is urged to sell sites
Police station eyed as next step
A town panel is recommending that Swampscott build a new police station near a sewage pumping station and sell the former Temple Israel, middle school, and Phillips Avenue fire station buildings.
Those are the highlights of a report issued earlier this month by the Town Building Study Committee, created by a vote of Town Meeting last year to offer recommendations on the disposition of 14 town-owned properties.
"It really addresses all the needs we came across," Angela Ippolito, chairwoman of the study committee, said of the plan. "It addresses our needs fiscally. It addresses our needs from a planning perspective. We really tried to consider the community's desires. And we think we've done the best job possible, weaving all that together."
The release of the report sets the stage for a potentially wide-ranging debate on the future of the town's municipal buildings at the May 5 Annual Town Meeting, at which the committee will present its plan and Town Meeting members will act on four articles related to it.
Those articles, placed on the warrant by the Board of Selectmen and the town administrator in anticipation of the committee's recommendations, include measures authorizing the town to sell the former Temple Israel building, the former middle school, and the former Phillips Avenue fire station buildings.
A fourth article, whose wording diverges slightly from the committee's recommendations, would authorize the sale or lease of the former Council on Aging building on Burrill Street. The committee proposed that the building be leased or demolished for use as municipal parking.
"I think they've done a great job," Selectwoman Jill Sullivan said of the study committee, which began its work in earnest last October. She pointed out that the group had to look at 14 properties and review "a lot of complicated material" in a short period of time.
Selectmen have yet to take a position on the Town Meeting proposals, Sullivan said.
A convergence of factors has placed the future of the town buildings on the front burner, including Swampscott's urgent need for a new police station, its relatively large number of surplus buildings, and its desire to generate new revenue.
A separate panel, the Temple Israel Reuse Committee, recommended last fall that the lower level of the former synagogue building become the site of a new police station, with the second floor and mezzanine used as a community center. (For the past year, the former synagogue has been the temporary location of municipal offices while Town Hall undergoes a major renovation).
But the Town Building Study Committee recommended that the property be sold to a private developer for high-density residential housing. The committee proposed that the new police station be located alongside the sewage pumping station on Humphrey Street.
Building a new police station at that site, Ippolito said, would allow the town to reinvigorate a property that is not suitable for tax revenue-producing uses, due to the presence of the pumping facilities and of underground tanks left over from a town sewage treatment plant that once operated there.
But its central location and easy access make the site an ideal spot for a police station, Ippolito said. The cost of the project would be covered by funds previously appropriated by Town Meeting and revenue from the sale of the former synagogue building and some of the other surplus properties.
The committee rejected the idea of locating the police station in the former Temple Israel building because "we could not identify a proper fit" for the remainder of the building, Ippolito said. She said housing was a suitable use for the property because it is located in a residential neighborhood.
Martin J. Grasso Jr., chairman of the Temple Israel Reuse Committee, said that he was not disappointed with the recommendations that Ippolito's panel offered on the property. Grasso pointed out that his committee had been assigned to focus on potential uses of the former synagogue building, while Ippolito's group was asked to look more broadly at municipal buildings.
"I think the Town Building Study Committee did a very thorough and exhaustive job integrating all the town assets into their deliberations," he said.
The former middle school building, on Greenwood Avenue, has been vacant since June, when the new high school opened on Essex Street and the middle school relocated to the former high school building on Forest Avenue. The Town Building Study Committee recommends that the Greenwood Avenue building be sold for redevelopmlent as multifamily housing.
Ippolito said housing was a logical use for the vacant building, because it sits in a dense residential neighborhood. She said the committee envisions a project incorporating the 1894 core of the building with new construction.
The century-old former Phillips Avenue fire station, currently leased to the town's private ambulance provider, would be converted to a single family house under the committee's plan. The ambulance company would relocate to the existing police station.
Ippolito said the committee favors having the town retain the Council on Aging property, because its value to the town outweighs what it would bring in the current real estate market. The building became surplus last year when the senior center relocated to space in the new high school.
Sullivan said the wording of the article on the Council on Aging building was intended to allow Town Meeting to consider a full range of options for the property.
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