SCITUATE — September 22, 2026 — The Select Board recommended a $5 million Community Preservation commitment to the Gates Apartments elderly housing project and $3,835,165 for construction of Pier 44 Park, sending two articles that lean on borrowed money to the October 19 special town meeting — the harbor park a night after the Advisory Committee voted against it.
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Neither can be covered out of cash on hand. The park would draw $3,835,165 in Community Preservation money, $3 million of it borrowed. The Gates Apartments commitment splits $587,000 from the community housing reserve and $413,000 from estimated receipts, with $4 million borrowed to reach $5 million. It is only the second time in 22 or 23 years the Community Preservation Committee has borrowed, and both articles need a two-thirds vote at town meeting.
The project had been through months of public meetings and five or six return appearances, Community Preservation Committee Chair Dan Fennelly said, and nobody raised objections until the advisory committee voted against it. Early estimates ran past $6 million before redesign brought the request down. The plan covers a boardwalk, a kayak launch, native plantings, ADA-accessible paths, flood storage and stormwater management, and the town is pursuing grants it hopes to have by year’s end, which would come back to the committee and lower its share. The borrowing is written for 10 years.
Public comment ran against it. Lynda Ferguson said restaurant expansion and outdoor seating have added demand for about 100 harbor parking spaces and called the park a want rather than a need the town should borrow for. Vice Chair James Gilmore replied that the construction figure in front of the board that night was $3,835,000. Chair Susan Harrison called harbor access a need in a coastal community where residents should not have to own a boat to reach the water, and said the borrowed money cannot pay for a parking lot.
I think that the design is not the correct design for the space. I think the town and the residents have plenty of access to the harbor, and I think that the board should hold off on this.
— resident Jennifer Kuhn speaking by Zoom 1:17:00
The Gates Apartments plan demolishes only the central building at the former junior high and replaces it with a 64,000-square-foot building holding 63 one-bedroom elderly apartments, a visiting nurse office and a community room, in a project budgeted at $33 million. Every unit would land in the subsidized housing inventory, bringing Scituate close to 7% and giving the town safe harbor to turn away new 40B applications — but not until the project itself is approved, six months to a year out. Member Nico Afanasenko argued the town will fund it eventually and should get out in front of it; Freya Schlegel objected to borrowing while traffic, historical and playing-field questions are unsettled.
