Changes are coming to Swifts Beach Road, tell the town what you think
Swifts Beach Landing. Photos source: Russ Kleekamp
The project site is outlined in red.
A conceptual design of the full restoration proposal with where the accessibility mat would be placed and tentative placements for native plantings. The sand would be under the mat.
A conceptual design of the pocket park with a general layout of the park and tentative native planting spots.
Swifts Beach Landing. Photos source: Russ Kleekamp
The project site is outlined in red.
A conceptual design of the full restoration proposal with where the accessibility mat would be placed and tentative placements for native plantings. The sand would be under the mat.
A conceptual design of the pocket park with a general layout of the park and tentative native planting spots.
After voters approved allocating $250,000 at Spring Town Meeting to make improvements to Swifts Beach Road, the town now has two proposals for the project they are seeking public comment on.
The overarching goals of the project are to remove impervious surfaces like asphalt abutting the beach from the end of the road known as Swifts Beach Landing and replace it with native sand and vegetation. Currently, there are two different proposals for the project designed by environmental engineering firm EDR.
“When you have impervious [surfaces] like a blacktop or a street and you’re in a coastal zone, there’s a lot of issues that can arise from that,” said service area leader for EDR Russ Kleekamp. “At the end of Swifts Beach landing there’s those four or five metal posts and a lot of time you get erosion right in front of that. It causes scouring which means there’s constant maintenance.”
Kleekamp added the current asphalt road disrupts the dunes, preventing them from acting naturally. The first proposal aims to address this by restoring the area to a more natural state.
The first proposal, also being called a full-restoration, includes fully removing the 500 feet of asphalt and replacing it with native sand and vegetation as well as installing a mat over the sand to make the pathway more accessible.
“What we would bring back there is native material that would match the grain size of the sand and then we would shape some of that to have it match the topography,” he said. “Then we would look to add native plantings.”
The second proposal replaces only a portion of the asphalt with sand and vegetation, leaving some to construct what Kleekamp called a “pocket park.”
The “pocket park” would be a concrete seating area with some native plantings in the middle, made to work like a culdesac for pedestrians.
“People could go there and sit and hang out. It would be a spot for a little relaxation,” he said. “There would be no swings or volleyball courts or anything like that.”
He added the pocket park would take inspiration from the recently redone Bayview Park by installing stamped concrete like the pathway through Bayview Park and a similar entrance sign.
Both proposals include a single drop-off spot for cars to pull into but it is not for parking.
Neither proposal is set-in-stone, according to Kleekamp. He said there will be future public meetings to gather input from residents on the proposals and he hopes construction will start sometime in 2026.
During construction Swifts Beach Landing will likely be closed, according to Kleekamp.
The $250,000 voters approved comes from the Community Preservation Fund, a pool of money collected through a surtax on property worth over $100,000. The fund can be used for historic preservation, affordable housing, community recreation and preservation of open space.
