Cape Elizabeth residents have narrowly approved an $86.5 million proposal to replace and repair the town’s aging middle and elementary schools, results from Tuesday’s local election shows.
Three years in the making, the proposal that voters will see on the ballot in less than a month represents a pared down version of what residents narrowly rejected last year.
53 percent of those who turned out to the polls Tuesday voted in support of the updated proposal, or 2,479 of the 4,674 voters who participated in the election.
Tuesday’s vote margin in favor of the proposal is comparable the 166 votes by which the original $94.7 million “Middle Ground School Project Design” bond was shot down last year, though in the positive direction.
After going back to the drawing board, the price tag was brought down to $86.5 million, representing roughly an $8.2 million reduction.
According to an impact table provided on the Cape Elizabeth School Department website, this would result in a 12.3 percent property tax hike over the course of several years, with residents expecting anywhere between a 1.3 and 2.8 percent increase in a given year.
For a home valued at $750,000 this would range from a $72 to $154 increase at any one time, with no changes scheduled for 2026 or 2033.
[RELATED: Cape Elizabeth Residents to Again Vote on Multi-Million Dollar Proposal to Upgrade Aging Schools]
In paring down the plan initially put forward on the November 2024 ballot, several major changes were made.
Plans no longer include the installation of a backup heating system, as the primary all-electric system is designed to work in temperatures as low as -10 degrees.
Costs were also cut by making square footage reductions in areas such as the locker rooms, cafeteria, and hallway spaces.
Additionally, there were originally plans to construct a new Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Space in Pond Cove Elementary School, but this has since shifted to a renovation of the current nurses office and conference room to accommodate STEM programming.
Other changes include removing the 1934 building from the scope of the project and identifying certain items that can be addressed using the existing established repair and maintenance budget.
Getting the revised bond before Cape Elizabeth voters as soon as possible was a high priority for many local officials, despite the expectation that an off-cycle election would have lower turnout, as waiting until the November ballot was estimated to potentially cost taxpayers an extra $1 million over the life of the project.
The Town Council vote to place the bond on the June 10 ballot was 5-2, with some hoping to wait until later this year to again put this project before the public.
The Town saw a whopping 57 percent turnout for Tuesday’s election, which is high for a local election and roughly equivalent to the nationwide voter turnout rate in the 2012 presidential election.
Voters also overwhelmingly approved the school budget for FY26, voting nearly two-to-one in support of the proposal.
57 percent of voters supported a town center zoning amendment approved by the Town Council in February allowing for multifamily housing developments in the area.
Voters also authorized the Town Council to spend up to $1.725 million in gifts and grants to install solar panels at the new middle school, receiving nearly 67 percent support.
