RSS Feed
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Zoning takes center stage
Planning Director Andrew Vorce said Monday night's nine adoptions confirmed his belief in the power of the methodical, public outreaching approach. "I'm glad to see that our process worked and that Town Meeting understands that we have to grapple with these zoning issues," said Vorce. ARTICLES 25, 26 & 27 These articles were not called, and that's just what the Harbor Plan Advisory Committee wanted. The articles contained recommendations that they be referred back to the committee so it could massage them for a future Town Meeting, probably this fall.
ARTICLE 28 With last night's two-thirds vote, there is now a permanent ban on the construction of new docks, wharves and piers in the RC districts. The existing temporary moratorium was set to expire on April 30. The exception to this ban is that Tuckernuck property owners - working with Marine Superintendent Dave Fronzuto, the Tuckernuck Land Owners Association and the Department of Environmental Protection - can build a community pier in the lagoon on the east of Tuckernuck Island. Dissent came from two private property owners on Nantucket Harbor: Debbie Deeley-Culbertson, speaking for her mother Florence Clifford's yearslong effort to cbuild a pier off her 92 Washington St. Ext. lot and Attorney Whitney Gifford, for his client who wants to renovate and expand the pier at the end of Old North Wharf. Deeley tried unsuccessfully to amend Article 28 to allow her pier to be built, as she and her family had already received an order of conditions from the Conservation Commission and a Chapter 91 Waterways license in anticipation of Article 28 going in her favor. "We're local people, we've grown up on the water and I don't believe in my heart of hearts this amendment is going to be harmful to the article," she said. But Fronzuto's comments about keeping the waterfront public seemed to convince voters what was important. "We held 35 meetings and got 1,500 emails and the message that we heard was loud and clear. It was the message we heard for three years at Town Meetings, and that's a prohibition on docks and piers," he said. ARTICLE 29 Few in the Mary P. Walker Auditorium could fault Barbara Gookin for writing this article because it seeks to help solve the island's yearround housing crisis "This means we could always have a yearround community on Nantucket and not just be a vacation place," said Gookin in her plea for a positive vote. But because, as island attorney Steve Cohen pointed out, her article is legally flawed, it failed on the Town Meeting floor. Gookin was essentially trying to enforce the town's existing secondary dwellings bylaw. But because her article limits their use to year-round residents and does not define what a year-round resident is, and could be construed as discriminatory, the voters did not adopt it. ARTICLES 31 & 32 Conversion of all of the lots on Doc Ryder, Henderson's and Swayze's drives (Article 31) and 29 lots on Golf View and Farm View drives (Article 32) from the denser RC-2 district to the more rural feel of R-10 is the aim of the only 41- 81D articles to get called from the warrant this year. However, Debbie Holdgate of 104 Somerset Road did not want to see these articles go through and, concerned that 11 lots left out of this change west of Somerset Road would sprout more development, tried to amend the articles by referring them back to the Planning Board. Jamie Howarth of 58 Miacomet Road agreed with Holdgate. "For the duration of time that any of these RC- 2 zoning areas persist, the owners can apply and can continue to do 50-percent ground coverage," he said. But Vorce, who told voters Monday night that he was unable to bring the owners of these lots on board for this change, said that deed restrictions preventing such intensification of this area still apply. "Despite all our efforts out there, I haven't got clear direction from everybody, so that's why we have to take this a step at a time," said Vorce. He added that eventually, these lots could likely be converted to R-10. ARTICLES 33, 34, 35 & 36 What started out as minor technical change to move the boundary between the RC-2, and the R- 2 and LUG-2 districts from the 20-foot contour line to the 10-foot contour line running through lots on the south side of Miacomet Avenue and the east side of Otokomi Road, swelled into a skirmish between property rights activists and Miacomet Pond protectors. Accomplishing these changes took four articles, in all of which the voters saw the logic of moving the line by adopting them. But because the movement of the contour line effectively changed some lots to RC-2 and others to LUG-2, some residents of this area complained they were losing their ability to develop their land while others said the change was vital to protecting Miacomet Pond from more pollution. "I now find myself with three wonderful children and as such, my children have decided to stay on Nantucket," said Richard Ray of 60 Miacomet Ave. "Should this zoning change occur, it will put them and the people on this side of Miacomet Avenue in a position where we can't subdivide our property." Ray, however, already filed a subdivision plan before these articles when to Town Meeting. Though there is town sewer serving the lots along these two roads, many voters worried about more development that would further pollute a pond that is the island's dirtiest. "Protecting the integrity of the pond is paramount in our considerations," said William Joyner of 42 Miacomet Ave. "A survey of the residents on the road indicated an almost unanimous vote that, among people on that side of the road, this is the right thing to do." ARTICLE 37 Without so much as a whimper from island developers, voters adopted Article 37, which boosts the minimum parking space requirements for almost all types of residential development including secondary dwellings, duplexes, multifamily dwellings and accessory dwellings to essentially one space per bedroom. There were no challenges to this article and no amendments. ARTICLE 40 Realizing his own article needed more work than the end of the first night of Town Meeting allowed, island attorney Richard Loftin successfully amended Article 40 so it is referred back to the Planning Board for renovation, repair and rejuvenation. As is, Loftin wanted the article to change the sunset date of the Mixed Income Residential Development bylaw from 2007 to 2009. The voters adopted Article 40 by a two-thirds vote. I |
for larger version       Ads have a Patent Pending. Click Here for More Information |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
)
)