Miacomet rift
Reis family appealing cease-and-desist order; land swap with Land Bank a consideration
BY PETER B. BRACE
Priscilla L. Reis, owner of 80 Miacomet Road, is appealing a cease-and-desist order from Zoning Enforcement Officer Marcus Silverstein at the Zoning Board of Appeals' meeting on Friday.

80 Miacomet Ave., outlined in black.

Silverstein, who previously issued cease-and-desist orders on Aug. 30, 2005 and on Feb. 17, charges that Reis is violating the Nantucket Zoning Code with the open storage of construction materials and vehicles on a lot at 80 Miacomet Ave. by not having a special permit from the Planning Board for an expansion of use.

Silverstein also alleges that Reis changed the use of the residentially zoned property to a commercial use without getting the proper permits.

Reis' attorney, Arthur Reade, maintains that the use of the land by Reis' son, Myles, Jr. for his trucking, sand, gravel and concrete business pre-dates the adoption of Nantucket's zoning bylaw in 1972, and that the cease-and-desist order should be voided. If it cannot, Reis through Reade, is asking that a spe- cial permit be issued to validate the current use of the property at 80 Miacomet Ave.

"We strenuously disagree with Marcus," said Reade. "It's been used before zoning by the Reises. The business has evolved through the normal evolution of a business rather than a change of use."

Neighbors of the property, along with the Nantucket Land Council, have complained to Silverstein about the amount of truck traffic on Miacomet Avenue and the storage of commercial materials next to a wetland, namely, Miacomet Pond.

LAND SWAP?

The 4.4-acre lot is located in the Residential-Commercial-Two zone where 5,000-square-foot lots are permitted. In addition to neighborhood concerns about dump trucks and cement mixers rumbling up and down their street, some are concerned about the number of houses that could be built on the property should the Reis family decide to go that route. There is the potential for about 20 lots on the property under current zoning.

The entire issue could be eliminated if a proposed land swap between the town and Reis becomes reality.

Sources close to The Independent said that the Nantucket Islands Land Bank, acting for the town, would trade a lot on Bunker Road behind the airport for Reis' land at 80 Miacomet Road. Neither the Land Bank nor Reade would comment on the potential swap concept, as it is in the preliminary planning stages.

If such a trade were to occur, Reis' operation would be moved to the industrially zoned area on the southeast side of the airport where other sand and gravel operations currently exist.

And, maintained as open space only, the property next to Miacomet Pond would help protect the pond's ecology and prevent the development of a subdivision.

Reis is holding firm.

"...The present commercial operations upon the locus, including open storage of commercial materials and vehicles, pre-exist the effective date of the zoning bylaw, and accordingly are protected as a pre-existing, nonconforming use," said Reade in his Sept. 29, 2005 letter in response to Silverstein's Aug. 30 cease-anddesist order.

In responding to Reade's letter, Silverstein assured him that he fully researched Reis' property and that, at the very least, Reis must file an appeal of his cease and desist order, which is what Friday's appearance at the ZBA is all about.

"Because of my research, I am confident that the current use of 80 Miacomet Ave. in no way relates to the former use of the property as a pig farm," said Silverstein in his Oct. 24, 2005 letter to Reade. "Furthermore, if storage of equipment and materials is indeed a continuation of a pre-existing, nonconforming use, it is at the least, an expansion of such use requiring relief under 139-33."

The Zoning Board of Appeals meets at 1 p.m. in the conference room of the Town Annex building at 37 Washington St.

I