On Saturday morning, November 7, the Board of Health is running a flu clinic from 9:00 a.m. to noon at the Scituate Harbor Community Building, 44 Jericho Road. Most of the harbor still knows the building as Pier 44. Nineteen days earlier, Special Town Meeting voted to tear it down.
People will line up for shots inside a building that is scheduled to come down, on a paved lot that is supposed to become a boardwalk. That is the right way to picture the next year or so on Jericho Road. The vote on October 19 was framed as park versus no park. The town settled that question sixteen years ago. What voters decided last month was the size of the park and how to pay for it. The schedule that follows means the waterfront will look much as it does now through at least one more summer.
The vote settled the price. A 2010 deed had already settled the purpose.
The town bought the 1.1-acre former restaurant property in 2010 for $1.75 million. The money came from the MBTA's Greenbush mitigation settlement. The money came with a condition. A use restriction recorded on the deed requires the land to serve "the public purpose of open space and land preservation for outdoor recreation by, and education of, the general public." It also names harbor access and a harbor view among the uses the town must protect.
That restriction answers the question people raise most often about the site, which is whether it could ever be a restaurant again. According to the town's Scituate Harbor Park FAQ, the property is protected under Article 97. Selling it for private use would take a unanimous Conservation Commission vote, a two-thirds Town Meeting vote, an alternatives analysis filed with the state, and permanent replacement land of equal or greater value. A citizens' petition to sell came to Town Meeting in 2014 and did not pass.
The building has also run out of road. The FAQ cites repeated flood damage, no ADA access, and a renovation that would require lifting the structure above base flood elevation. The town calls that impractical. Electricity and insurance alone run about $30,000 a year. As South Shore News reported, Select Board member Nico Afanasenko summed up the choice on the floor: "The only question tonight is whether it's a beautiful park or a patch of dirt."
What $3,835,165 buys at the waterline
The motion carried by the required two-thirds on a voice vote. It appropriates $3,835,165, with $835,165 from undesignated Community Preservation funds and up to $3 million in borrowing, reduced by any grants that arrive first. Afanasenko said design changes had already brought the estimate down from $6 million.
The permitted design comes from the landscape architecture firm Copley Wolff. The town's May 2025 site plan review describes these elements:
- A timber deck boardwalk, a harbor viewing area, and a shade structure built of cedar and stainless steel with a metal roof
- A gangway and floating small-craft launch dock for kayaks and similar boats
- A new revetment along the shoreline
- Walkways and a plaza for picnic tables and benches
- A lawn with no irrigation, plus native plantings
- A rain garden to treat stormwater before it reaches the harbor
- A restroom trailer with a sewer connection, on site fewer than 180 days a year
The water-quality goal explains much of the design. Today the site is almost entirely pavement draining into Scituate Harbor, which the FAQ notes is listed as impaired for fecal coliform. The town expects the park to cut total suspended solids from the site by 88 percent and phosphorus loading by 66 percent. That is why the Scituate Waterways Commission backed the project in a letter read at the October 13 Select Board meeting, citing public access and stormwater improvements, according to Citizen Portal's meeting summary.
The debate was about the boardwalk, not the park
Nobody at Town Meeting argued for keeping the building or selling the land. The disagreement was over how much to build. Advisory Committee Vice Chair Missy Seidel said the committee supports a public waterfront space but voted 2-4 against this plan because of its cost. She put the town's total investment at just over $7 million. That figure counts $2.5 million already spent, the $3.8 million request, and an estimated $742,000 in interest on $3 million borrowed at 4.5 percent over ten years.
Advisory Committee member Conor Doherty, speaking as a resident, 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," he said, as quoted by South Shore News.
On the other side, the Community Preservation Committee voted unanimously for the project. Its representative said that despite disliking the borrowing, the committee saw it as the only way to finish a 16-year effort. Berry Kurland, chair of the Economic Development Commission, said that commission also voted unanimously in support, arguing the park would bring visitors to harbor businesses.
Finance director Nancy Holt explained the trade-off. The park debt will take ten years to repay and will reduce CPC money available for other projects, though she said at least $1 million a year should remain, depending on the Gates vote. The Gates vote passed later the same night: $5 million toward 63 affordable senior apartments at the Old Gates School site. Select Board Vice Chair James Gilmore said residents will not see real activity there for at least a year. Over the next decade, both of these projects will draw on the town's preservation budget.
Parking: twenty spaces, plus a separate project later
Parking drew the most questions from harbor neighbors. At the October 15 information session, residents asked whether the current design's 20 spaces would be enough for downtown. They also raised lost event parking, boats and trailers parked on grass, and the need for a traffic study at the Jericho Road curb cut, Citizen Portal reported.
The 20 spaces are not all on the lot. The 2025 site plan review shows 13 on-site spaces and seven parallel spaces along Jericho Road. The sidewalk was pulled back onto the property to make room for the street spaces. The deed restriction limits how far that number can grow. The FAQ says parking is allowed only as a use that supports the park, never as the property's main use. Zoning would also require one tree per eight spaces, and the stormwater bylaw requires the first inch of runoff to be held on site. At Town Meeting, the town administrator said any added parking along Jericho Road beyond the 20 spaces would be a separate, later project.
The calendar from here
The town's own schedule is hedged. The words "likely," "possibly" and "could" appear in each step.
| When | What the town expects | What you'll see on Jericho Road |
|---|---|---|
| November 7, 2026 | Board of Health flu clinic, 9 a.m. to noon | The Harbor Community Building in public use |
| Winter 2026–27 | No construction milestone scheduled | The building and paved lot as they are today |
| Spring/Summer 2027 | Project likely goes out to bid | Still the existing site through summer 2027 |
| Summer/Fall 2027 | Construction could start "as early as" this window | Demolition and site work, once a contract is in place |
| Summer/Fall 2028 | Park could open | Boardwalk, kayak launch and lawn |
The FAQ says a full construction timeline will exist only after bids come back. Staff told the October 15 session that the project holds its conservation, planning and Chapter 91 permits, and that the Select Board has approved the 90 percent design. They also said several permits require construction to start before they expire or the town must seek extensions. That gives the town a reason to keep the bid on schedule.
Until a contract is signed, Pier 44 stays what it has been since 2010: a town building on a harbor lot, open for public events like the flu clinic. Registration for the November 7 clinic is through the town's announcement or by calling the Board of Health at 781-545-8725.
The Frank Neer Team has followed Scituate Harbor for many years, and we keep track of projects like Pier 44 Park as they move from Town Meeting votes to construction. If you'd like to talk about how the Jericho Road waterfront is changing, Frank Neer is glad to have that conversation. Contact Us.
