Selectmen and Shellfish Association advise DEP on yacht club conditions
BY PETER B. BRACE
In a letter written to the state on the Great Harbor Yacht Club's pending Chapter 91 Waterways license, the Board of Selectmen charge that nonwater dependent uses are out of scale with water-dependent uses.

On yesterday's public comment deadline, the selectmen sent Ben Lynch, Chapter 91 Waterways Program Chief for the state's Department of Environmental Protection, a three-page comment letter with 12 detailed requests that amount to a strong town protest against the club's proposal.

"This formal objection by the Board of Selectmen of the Town of Nantucket enumerates only a few of the issues and objections related to the Department's granting of the Chapter 91 waterways license, as requested in DEPWaterways License Application No. W06-1793, and is in addition to any formal comments, objections or other submissions made to the Department by other governmental bodies or officials of the Town of Nantucket under separate cover, including but not limited to any formal objections submitted by Town Counsel," said Selectmen Chairman Whitey Willauer in the letter.

Chief among the requests and comments is the board's assertion that the club's 21,000-square-foot clubhouse dwarfs the water-dependent uses of its 96 Washington St. Ext. property.

Lynch determined in November that Great Harbor's proposed clubhouse, piers, ramps and slips for about 40 boats, a travel lift pier, accessway to the waterfront for marine related vehicles, a waterside public pedestrian accessway, open space, interior access drives, vehicular parking and dredging are water-dependent enough that they must be built on the harbor to serve the needs of the club's members, but the selectmen disagree. The board also wants Lynch to know that:

+ A30-year license is the right length of time;

+ The town prefers the existing boat hauling infrastructure of the Travelift remain where it is today, and that the club's proposed crane on the south side of its property is not acceptable;

+ A public dinghy dock should be provided;

+ The club's slips should be available to scallop boats during the off-season at current town pier rates, and 20 percent of the slips be open to the boating public during the summer;

+ The club needs to provide public gasoline and diesel fuel sales, boat hauling services and boat holding tank pump-outs;

+ On-site oil spill recovery and disposal equipment and personnel training must be provided;

+ The water and electrical utilities must be incorporated into dock floats;

+ "Glowacki Caps" have to be placed over all Helix moorings in shellfish beds prior to seasonal dock float removal;

+ The club needs to build a public boat launching ramp on its property;

+ The club's public waterfront access walkway must describe the property instead of coming to a dead end on its north side;

+ All docks should be kept small to protect eelgrass and other natural habitats.

In addition to the selectmen's comment letter, the Nantucket Shellfish Association also chimed in with its own communiqué of three requests in its efforts to protect the bay scallop fishery. It asked Lynch to condition Great Harbor's license so the club:

+ Only provides enough floating docks for its launches and no more for other uses;

+ Dredges just within the existing channel;

+ Does not relocate any existing moorings and/or place new moorings in its proposed relocation site.

"NSA is opposed to any plan for the waters of Nantucket, which, through the location of piers, the relocation of moorings or through dredging, disturbs or destroys eelgrass beds of any density, since these beds serve as the habitat and spawning ground of shellfish, particularly bay scallops," said NSA Vice President Frank Dutra in his letter to Lynch.

Lynch said at the Dec. 14 Chapter 91 license hearing on Nantucket that he would likely be making his decision on Great Harbor's license sometime

this spring. I