Harbor Plan not ready for state consumption
ENVIRONMENT
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Scores of Nantucketers have read the 163-page, 2007 Nantucket and Madaket Harbors Action Plan. As a result, comments and criticisms are flooding in like a moon tide, forcing the Harbor Plan Advisory Committee to extend its review period.

At tonight's meeting of the Board of Selectmen, Marine Superintendent Dave Fronzuto is expected to ask the board for a two-month extension to the May 23 selectmen's meeting.

During that time, the committee will incorporate comments it received on the current draft of the plan into the next version, which would then be available to Nantucketers for one more peek before being sent to the state's Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Office of Coastal Zone Management (CZM).

"We got a very large amount of comments - probably about 60 to 70 pages of comments- and each comment has many significant points. We want the harbor committee to have a enough time to review it and agree and vote as a whole," said UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station Director Sarah Oktay, a member of the committee. "The changes are going to be relatively significant. It's important that we get a version that we're completely happy with and that the public is happy with."

Of the new comments, Oktay said some of the more useful recommendations Nantucketers said were missing from this incarnation of the harbor plan included a dredging plan for the harbor in relation to water quality, circulation and use of the harbor, a shellfish management plan, and a water quality plan.

Additionally, Oktay said a fair amount of comments came from people wanting more details on how many of the original 1993 Nantucket Harbor Action Plan items were accomplished, and more documentation and flushing out of existing ideas.

"A majority of the commenters were happy with our recommendations," said Oktay. "People are mainly concerned that implementation timelines are included.

"We want to make sure we respect all these comments and that we address each of them."

Since August 2005, the Marine & Coastal Resources Department, working with harbor and waterfront stakeholders along with the town's consultant, the Urban Harbors Institute, and the Harbor Plan Advisory Committee, have been working on the revision of Nantucket's original harbor action plan created in 1993. Last fall, the selectmen chose to have DEP and CZM review and approve the plan instead of doing it locally. Also, the evolving harbors plan generated Articles 25-28 on this year's warrant for Town Meeting in April that could create waterfront overlay districts for Nantucket and Madaket harbors, and make permanent the temporary moratorium on docks,

wharves and piers. I

READ THE HARBOR PLAN

Read the latest version of the 2007 Nantucket and Madaket Harbors Action Plan. Hard copies and CDs of the plan are available at the Board of Selectmen's office in the Town & County Building at 16 Broad St., the Marine & Coastal Resources Department at 34 Washington St. and the Nantucket Atheneum at 1 India St. The plan is also online at www.nantucketharborplan.com/.