Swampscott Housing Explained: Resource Page.

2 min readMar 17, 2022

Find additional resources here for more learning and exploring on housing in our town and the greater Boston-metro area.

Swampscott Resources

Swampscott Housing Explained, Video Series

Transcripts of “Swampscott Housing Explained” video series. Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.

Swampscott State of Affordable Housing Report: https://swampscottrjag.medium.com/the-state-of-affordable-housing-in-swampscott-april-2021-96045b5a42b

Town of Swampscott Zoning By-laws (PDF): https://www.swampscottma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif1296/f/uploads/swampscott_zoning_by-laws_5_17_21_atm_clean_copy.pdf

Swampscott Zoning Map (PDF): https://www.swampscottma.gov/sites/g/files/vyhlif1296/f/uploads/2018atm-attachment1d-zoningmap.pdf

FAQ:

Who will handle the creation of the zone for Section 3A? Zoning changes are generally put together by town administration staff in conjunction with members of the Planning Board. The proposed zone will then need to be approved by a 50% vote at Town Meeting.

Who is in charge of housing production in Swampscott? There is no single entity that is in charge of the promotion of housing production in Swampscott. The Planning Board generally has the most control through the creation of suggested changes to zoning by-laws, but Town Meeting must approve any proposed change.

The Select Board is usually the first point of public contact for proposed 40B developments, but their role is limited to setting the tone of interaction with the developer. The Select Board will offer it’s opinion on the project, but the DHCD is the entity that ultimately can approve or reject the initial project. If approved, the 40B project goes through the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals who doesn’t really have a lot of say in whether the final project gets approved by the state or not, but local ZBAs usually use the opportunity to try and work out any concerns they may have with the project. 40B projects are generally classified as being “friendly” if the developer is amicable to working with the town’s concerns or “unfriendly” if they are not, but town’s with a higher affordable housing stock are generally ones that are friendly to developers and show a willingness to work with them and town’s with a lower affordable housing stock are generally more hostile to developers and use the process to delay the project as much as possible.

Section 3A will require town’s to make multi-family housing “By Right” meaning a multi-family housing project will not have go through the ZBA approval process to receive a special permit as our town’s by-laws currently dictate for some zones. Most zones do not allow multi-family housing at all.