SCITUATE — Oct. 19, 2026 — Scituate’s Special Town Meeting on Monday approved $3,835,165 in Community Preservation money for Pier 44 Park, including $3 million in borrowing, despite an Advisory Committee recommendation against it. Voters also approved $5 million, including $4 million in borrowing, toward the planned Gates Apartments senior housing and indefinitely postponed a police firearms and decision-making training facility.
The Full Story
Park clears two-thirds
After a resident moved the question, the moderator declared the park motion passed by the required two-thirds on a voice vote.
The motion appropriates $3,835,165 to renovate the property at 44 Jericho Road: $835,165 from undesignated fund balance and $3 million in borrowing by the treasurer with Select Board approval, reduced by any grants received first.
Select Board member Nico Afanasenko said the board voted 4-1 for the project and that deed restrictions the MBTA placed on the land when the town acquired it in 2010 allow only public open space and recreation. He said design changes cut the estimate from $6 million, a $100,000 grant is already secured and the existing building costs taxpayers $30,000 a year in insurance and utilities.
The only question tonight is whether it’s a beautiful park or a patch of dirt
— Nico Afanasenko, Select Board 33:11
Advisory Committee Vice Chair Missy Seidel said the committee supports a public waterfront space but voted 2-4 against this plan over its cost. She put the town’s total investment at just over $7 million, counting $2.5 million already invested, the $3.8 million request and an estimated $742,000 to borrow $3 million at 4.5% over 10 years. She said a simpler design with more modest paths and plantings would be more fiscally prudent.
Conor Doherty, an Advisory Committee member who said he was speaking as a resident, rejected the board’s park-or-dirt framing and said the boardwalk alone costs $1 million.
I think we can still provide an incredible, beautiful seaside park that doesn’t cost the town three million in borrowing and a lack of flexibility for CPC
— Conor Doherty 1:05:35
A Community Preservation Committee representative said the CPC voted unanimously for the project and, despite disliking borrowing, saw it as the only way to finish a 16-year effort. Berry Kurland, chair of the Economic Development Commission, said it voted unanimously in support, arguing the park would draw visitors to harbor businesses.
The finance director, Nancy Holt, said the park debt would take 10 years to repay and would reduce CPC money for other projects, though at least $1 million a year should remain available, depending on the Gates vote.
The town administrator said the revetment work accounts for about $400,000. He also said added parking along Jericho Road, beyond the design’s 20 spaces, would be a separate, later project.
Gates Apartments
The Gates motion drew no speakers from the floor, and the moderator declared it passed by a two-thirds majority. It appropriates $5 million in Community Preservation money for the Gates Apartments, which the Grantham Group plans as 63 affordable senior apartments at the Old Gates School site. The motion draws $587,235 from the Community Housing Reserve and roughly $413,000 from fiscal 2027 estimated receipts and authorizes $4 million in borrowing.
Select Board Vice Chair James Gilmore said the $5 million is the only town money for a roughly $33 million building, with the balance to come from the state and the developer, and that residents will not see real activity at the site for at least a year. The Select Board voted 4-1 in favor.
Seidel said the Advisory Committee voted 5-1 in favor, citing the need for affordable housing and what she described as a one-year safe harbor from new 40B applications; the lone dissent concerned how long the money could be tied up during permitting. A CPC representative likened the $5 million to a poker ante that positions the project for other funding.
