GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT

BY PETER B. BRACE

Despite the real estate slowdown on Nantucket this year, development of the island showed no signs of slowing.

From left: Workers dealt with starts and stops at the Dreamland; framing out at Nantucket Winery and Cisco Brewers; and, testing the boundries of historic preservation with the Kilvert House on Main Street. As Nantucket is largely insulated from mainland economic trends, island-specific factors may have had certain minor impacts on Nantucket's development picture this year.

Certainly the adoption of seven zoning district changes as part of the 41-81D Master Plan at the April Town Meeting and the adoption of 10 such articles at the October Special Town Meeting, including four new commercial zones, prompted several island property owners to file development plans. Though the Planning Board's intent with the Land Use element of the 41-81D Master Plan is to match zoning changes with current development patterns all around the island, financially savvy property owners are going to do whatever they can to maximize their investments. Well-intended as they may be, some of these zoning district changes can devalue one's land by decreasing its density or changing its use, property owners worry.

What developed in 2006 showed that Nantucketers are bullish on maxing out the confines of the Grey Lady despite cries to halt buildings to protect its unique character.

While Planning Director Andrew Vorce and the Planning Board want the southeast end of Old South Road to evolve into a predominantly commercial area, two zoning change reactions came from Kenneth Coffin, Inc. with a 64-lot preliminary plan for his nine acres at 3 Arrowhead Drive and Carl Jelleme with 21 lots on 3.2 acres at Arrowhead Drive and 109 Hinsdale Lane.

The rest of this part of the island, the Nobadeer Farm Road neighborhood, which is in the Multifamily Overlay District, exploded with the development buildout this year. The 46-unit Nobadeer Meetinghouse duplex development off Sun Island Road wrapped up. Two other developments, Nantucket Properties One and Two, with four units each that got approved in November 2005 and Washed Ashore, approved by the Planning Board this year, already have houses or condominium units on them. Also, Small Friends of Nantucket got HDC approval to build its one-story, 6,638-square-foot new building at 19 Nobadeer Farm Road next to the Nantucket New School.

Closer to town, the mid-island area experienced significant changes as well with the construction of the island's first roundabout designed to solve traffic congestion at the intersection of Hooper Farm Road, Sparks Avenue and Pleasant Street. Aiding this decongestion effort is the new, 5,000-square-foot post office next to Pacific National Bank.

Both services will eventually share parking and drivers will enter the compound from the bank's Sparks Avenue access and exit from the post office's driveway on Pleasant Street.

The new post office property will be linked by an easement brokered by the Planning Board to developer and Kitty Murtagh's owner John Keane's commercial lots at 6 and 8 West Creek Road where Keane built two 1,080-square-foot buildings with commercial uses on the first floors and two apartments each on the second floors.

With nearly 50 percent of its land preserved as open space, Nantucket may be running out of developable lots, but there sure is no shortage of money on this tiny island as evidenced by Planning Board approvals this year of major renovation projects for the Harbor House Hotel complex, Point Breeze Hotel and Dreamland Theater. These three projects, almost certainly costing well into the millions, are going to have profound effects on downtown Nantucket both during and after construction.

Though the Dreamland project was bogged down in local red tape at press time and Nantucket Island Resorts is still in the design phase for the Harbor House, Point Breeze owner Bob Matthews has already jacked up his hotel for a new foundation, poured one for his addition and begun renovation work on Chancellor's, the hotel restaurant. After getting Planning Board approval this summer for 100 more members, work also began on the Westmoor Club's expansion of its facilities including four more tennis courts, a lap pool, 36 more parking spaces, rear access on West Chester Street and a maintenance shed.

The other club in the news this year was the Great Harbor Yacht Club, which cleared most of its local review board hurdles and subsequent appeals, and secured a water-dependency rating from the Department of Environmental Protection. Great Harbor also demolished its boat yard buildings on the harbor.

Outside of town, several major residential developments got going this year and others got approved or are still being reviewed by the Planning Board. Both the 22-acre, 13-lot Nanahumack Preserve at the former Mike Lamb sand pit at 149 Hummock Pond Road and the 6.5-acre, 14-lot 'Sconset Hydrangeas subdivision in 'Sconset began their infrastructure work, and Bernie and Carol Coffin, the owners of the Siasconset Post Office building, started renovating the 104-yearold building in early October with a projected re-opening date of June 1, 2007.

Don Allen Ford, Nantucket's only car dealership, got Planning Board approval on Feb. 16, 2004 to revamp its 1.7-acre, 24 Polpis Road property. Gone are its tired old original buildings, the Quonset hut and the lack of space.

On March 6, in their place, opened a two-story, 10- bay metal service building with 10 vehicle lifts accessed by roll-up doors wide enough to accommodate larger vehicles including big trucks. Inside, there is also a service office and counter with a customer waiting area. A self-enclosed paint booth, several bodywork bays, and an oil storage and equipment room are at the northeast end of this building.

Don Allen also opened its new sales building with enough room to show cars indoors and house employees upstairs. It then demolished its old buildings during the spring, replacing them with more new vehicle space. And most recently, at the Dec. 11 Planning Board meeting, Don Allen Ford modified its special permit so it could move the vehicle inspection station from NancyAnn Lane to its own facility.

Closer to town, Nantucket's first two 40B affordable housing projects, the 40-unit Beach Plum Village

on 10 acres between Rugged Road and Scott's Way, and the 28-unit Abrem Quary development between Field and Folger avenues broke ground this year. And in the same neighborhood, Sherburne Commons, Nantucket's first assisted living facility is nearly finished with 20 independent living cottages, 18 one- and two-bedroom apartments, 14 assisted living apartments and eight similar apartments for residents with Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

Still in the design phase are several projects either under review or fresh out off the Planning Board desk including the 13-lot Finback Lane off Bartlett Road and the 19-lot Bluefin, LLC, at 120 Miacomet Road.

The Planning Department underwent some growing pains of its own this year. During the summer as part of a long-term plan to find a larger, more permanent home for all town offices, the town moved the administrative offices of the Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals and Nantucket Planning & Economic Development Commission out to its 2 Fairgrounds Road property and into the former Nantucket Electric Company headquarters.

With more than enough space for all its files, maps and records, the planning staff's new digs even had room for a new land use planner, which Vorce had been trying to hire since former land use planner Leslie Woodson moved into the senior planner role in the summer of 2005 after the NP&EDC hired Vorce to be Planning Director.

Acclimatization appears to be the root of contention between the board and its three alternate members. The board's blanket charges of tardiness, intoxication, poor meeting behavior and bad manners in staff relations angered the alternates who wanted to know which one did what so they could speak to their alleged transgressions.

This brouhaha escalated into both sides firing off emails and letters at each other and the board agreeing to discuss holding a hearing so alternates Charity Benz, Jason Flanagan and John Wagley can air their concerns to the board.

On a lighter note, the planning staff is helping the Tom Nevers Civic Association and a group of residents from Surfside and the South Shore Road area do area plans for their part of the island. Both, according to their steering committees, are following the lead of the Madaket Area Plan, which the Madaket Area Plan Workgroup completed this summer.

Those who rule on what is built on these developments and on existing lots had their hands full in 2006. The Historic District Commission wrangled with the owners of 43 Center St. and 105 Main St., the former more successfully than the latter, to get them to comply with their HDC approvals for historic renovation of their houses.

The commission also held public hearings on the use of synthetic building materials, including fiberglass columns, and is in the process of revising its policies on these building materials

And the Nantucket Preservation Trust replaced its original executive director, Pat Butler, with Michael May.

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