Swampscott Pine Street Parcel, VFW Future Spurs Special Town Meeting

SWAMPSCOTT, MA — Swampscott Town Meeting members will convene at the elementary school on March 19 to help determine the future of the town's plans for the 12-24 Pine Street and 10 Ne New Ocean Street property purchased for $1.8 million in 2023.

A citizens' petition seeks to overturn the authority town meeting granted two years ago, after those behind the petition argued that the original plan presented to town meeting members — which included senior affordable veterans housing and a renovated VFW post on site — is not represented in current plans to move the VFW post to the former ReachArts building on Burrill Street while a senior, veterans-preference housing building is built on the town-purchased site.

• Swampscott Select Board Rejects Special Town Meeting On VFW Post

"Passage of this warrant article will serve notice on the Select Board that it exceeded the intent of Town Meeting by excluding VFW Post 1240 as a future occupant of these properties despite clear
statements by the Select Board to Town Meeting that the VFW Post 1240 would continue to be
located on these properties as part of any future redevelopment of the properties," the warrant states.

The Select Board voted 3-2 in January to decline a special town meeting on the matter — instead to have it taken up at the annual town meeting — but reversed course after Chair MaryEllen Fletcher said during a Feb. 5 Select Board meeting that a certified citizens' petition had been submitted, which requires the special town meeting within 45 days.

• Swampscott VFW Forced To Move For New Veterans Senior Housing Building

Those against plans for a relocated VFW that the Select Board approved in a 3-2 vote in December — including Select Board members Doug Thompson and David Grishman, who championed the project during the 2023 annual town meeting campaign — argued that the intent of the town meeting authorization was to include the VFW reconstruction on site and that deviating from that in the final project proposal went against the will and spirit of that town meeting vote.

Select Board members Katie Phelan, Danielle Leonard and Fletcher voted in favor of a revised proposal for the property that included spreading the housing complex over the two parcels to minimize its height by one story and its impact on the neighborhood.

The Land Development Agreement, which was approved in December, faced a deadline as the town was using the expiring American Rescue Plan Act funding to pay for the purchase and fund the project.

Fletcher had proposed the town pay one year of utilities, electrical and accessibility upgrades, and other necessary renovations to the Burrill Street building to make it a financially viable VFW post.

But VFW Post representatives publicly rejected that compromise, arguing that the VFW Post needed to remain on site for the project to be in line with the 2023 town meeting vote.

The Special Town Meeting will be held in the elementary school auditorium beginning on March 19 with Town Moderator Michael McClung presiding.

(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.)