[Speaker 2] (0:00 - 1:06)
So we're going to talk about Article 19 on the Town Meeting Warrant, which is the article to amend the Zoning By-law for the Hadley School Overlay District. And I'm just going to read that article now to you. It's to see if the Town will vote to amend the Swampscot Zoning By-law and Zoning Map to add and establish a new overlay district, being the Hadley School Overlay District, to allow hotel with associated accessory uses and public parking as set forth in Appendices F and G, and to renumber the Table of Contents and Zoning By-law accordingly, or to take any action relevant thereto.

So what does that mean? The by-law would allow for the creation of a special zoning district on the Hadley property with explicit allowances and restrictions, including the allowance of a hotel with accessory units and public parking. And Angela's here with me to discuss this one, and I'd be interested to know the history.

I know there's a lot of history behind the Hadley site and with the creation of the new elementary school, what happens to the Hadley School afterwards. So maybe you can walk us through a little bit of history there.

[Speaker 1] (1:07 - 3:21)
Thanks, Mike. So the Hadley School, as most people know, will be decommissioned once the new elementary school is built. Because we've known this for quite some time, since the Town moved forward with the new elementary school, the Town has been contemplating what the best use of the Hadley property would be and took steps to think about this in advance, formed a committee that worked for an entire year, the Hadley Reuse Advisory Committee that had members on it from all different constituencies in town, to discuss what the possible uses should be. That committee, again, worked for quite a long time, at least a year, and put a final report together, and the report identified three uses that were considered the highest and best use for the property. They submitted that report to the Select Board for them to come to a decision on what would be the best use to pursue.

The three uses were a community center with some other accessory uses, maybe some shops or restaurants, something like that, and senior affordable housing was the other option, and a small boutique hotel was the third option. The Select Board decided to pursue the third option for a small boutique hotel. There are many reasons for this.

One of the reasons being that we have no lodging in town for friends and family of Town residents to stay in. We also don't have any feature like that that is especially right on the ocean with spectacular views, with easy access to lovely scenic walking area, easy access to the train depot, and what is perceived as a location that would really spur economic development around the Humphrey Street area.

[Speaker 2] (3:23 - 3:31)
Well, it sounds like a great idea, but what zoning exists there now, and what would this overlay district do to enable that?

[Speaker 1] (3:32 - 5:39)
The zoning that exists there now actually permits a hotel use by right. The Hadley School property sits within the Humphrey Street overlay district. It also sits within the tourist overlay district, so a hotel use at that site is allowed.

It would be most likely a special permit process. So the reason we decided to create an overlay for this district is because when we create an overlay, we're able to require that any development be consistent with the standards that are included in the zoning for the overlay and must comply with the design guidelines that will be adopted for that district. So what does that do?

It gives the town and any proposed investor slash developer of a boutique hotel, it gives them predictability. So we know what to expect. We know exactly what will be developed on the site.

We know exactly what the height limitations will be, what the circulation will be, what kind of open space to expect, how many rooms there'll be, what accessory uses will be allowed. And it's not only a good thing for us as residents to know what to expect, but it's also important if we want to be able to secure any kind of an agreement, to develop a land development agreement with someone who is going to commit and invest in the town. It gives them an opportunity to know exactly what they're getting and not to have any misunderstanding about what can happen at the site.

It also gives us an opportunity to protect an historic building and to adaptively reuse that building, which we've not been able to do. What we have with the Michon School, we did adaptively reuse that, but it's a tremendous opportunity to adaptively reuse an existing historic building.

[Speaker 2] (5:39 - 6:01)
Well, that's really exciting. So let's talk a little bit about these design guidelines. Who creates them?

What may they include? And then what's the public benefit as well? Potentially one of the earlier schemes for this site had community use.

Is there going to be a restaurant? What other uses may there be on site?

[Speaker 1] (6:01 - 7:55)
That's a good question. So the design guidelines, first of all, to answer your question, will be developed in a joint effort between the planning board and community development and other experts that we have used guidance we've received from agencies that specialize in this kind of work. Again, they will be able to determine what exactly of the building must be preserved, exactly how much green space there will be, where the parking will be, what the height restrictions are.

It will allow the use of a restaurant, the inclusion of a restaurant on site, which could be even a rooftop restaurant. And if that were created, it would be designed as to be set back from the edge of the building so as not to obstruct views from the neighborhood. We would want this to fit into the established pattern that we have in town, which is one of the benefits of adaptively reusing a building.

This is part of our development pattern in town. These are familiar features. This is a familiar use in terms of multiple people being around a site, whether it's children, which is the case right now, and cars and parents and so forth, or whether it's a different use.

In terms of public accessibility, of course, the restaurant, any public areas of a boutique hotel, would, of course, be open to the public. And we also contemplate that the additional parking facilities that may be added as part of the design guidelines would also be available for public use.

[Speaker 2] (7:56 - 8:14)
Well, that's really helpful to know. I think it sounds like this design guideline would provide a lot of clarity, both for the town and the developer, what we would expect for traffic, what we would expect for parking, what we would expect for sight lines. Is there anything else you wanted to add today that we haven't talked about yet for this?

[Speaker 1] (8:14 - 9:07)
Well, we do think about the fact that we are also envisioning the future of the Hawthorne site and that that would be a wonderful connection, the kind of open park feature and whatever form the structure that may, any kind of architectural structure that may surround the park, that may or may not surround the park, because those decisions have not yet been made. But we do know that there will be some kind of a beautiful open park feature there at some point in time. And we see that as another tremendous amenity connecting any potential hotel to the Olmstead District to the oceanfront.

It's a very, very beautiful and attractive setting and one that I dare say is not replicated anywhere else on the North Shore.

[Speaker 2] (9:07 - 9:12)
Right. Well, it's good to think about these things holistically, and thank you for explaining them to us today.

[Speaker 1] (9:12 - 9:12)
You're welcome.