Pippen's Way bogged down in septic, access issues Manor House annex hung up on parking concerns
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Pippen's Way, the proposed nine-lot subdivision at 12 Gardner Road and the addition to the Manor House with a five-lot underground parking garage drew criticism from the Planning Board on April 23, but no decisions.

PETER B. BRACE/The Independent Once it gets all the approvals it needs, Center Street ACKquisitions, LLC, owners of the Manor House on Center Street, wants to remove the Linden House on Chestnut Street, the cottage on the left, and build a 10-room annex to the Manor House on the brick parking lot next to it. Beneath that would be a five-spot underground parking garage.

Parking, where parking is virtually nonexistent, is the issue dogging Center Street ACKquisition, LLC's plan to build a 10-room standalone addition to the Manor House on Chestnut Street.

For Pippen's Way, sewage containment and treatment issues along with primary and secondary access concerns persist throughout its appearances before the Planning Board, as neighbors and abutters decry the selection of their road for this development.

The Manor House wants to build a 10-room cottage by removing an eight-space parking lot in the middle of downtown Nantucket where parking is more priceless than bay scallops in January; nonetheless, the board is not giving up ACKquisition's requested waiver of 13 parking spaces easily. The requirement based on the proposed use is 18 spots. The five spaces proposed beneath the Manor House annex do not appear to be enough for the Planning Board despite Philbrick's assertions that most of the Manor House's guests do not bring their vehicles to the island.

"The parking on the site is private parking," said Philbrick. "It's an extremely underused lot because the bed-and-breakfast use is commonly accepted as a pedestrian use; people are not bringing their cars."

That may be the case, said members of the Planning Board, but the Manor House should still do something to prevent further congestion of the area including paying for Nantucket Regional Transit Authority bus passes for their employees and providing shuttle van service between their property and the ferry docks. Though Philbrick said the Manor House's advertising does encourage its guests to leave their cars on the mainland, the board wants it to embrace some other solutions.

"I really want you to research this a bit further because I'm not convinced that you can't come up with some collaborative concepts," said Planning Board member Barry Rector. "Let's talk about some other things we can do on a proactive basis rather than just advertising."

But new Planning Board member Nat Lowell disagreed with Rector, saying that since bed and breakfasts are disappearing on Nantucket, taking the hard line on parking is not the way to go.

"The problem that I have is requiring the parking being up to standards of the downtown and that is essentially killing the project," he said.

Just reaching the site of its Pippen's Way project at 12 Gardner Road is proving to be a challenge for See Terrier Farms Trust. This group is claiming rights to this dirt road that runs parallel to the east end of Moors End Farm and to do its development, it wants to improve the road to 33 feet and pave it from Polpis Road down to its access, Pippen's Way.

And as secondary access, because Pippen's Way is going to be longer than 1,000 feet, the developer wants to use a road coming in from South Valley Road. Further worrying its neighbors are the septic systems proposed for what they believe to be an environmentally sensitive area with a pond nearby.

In dealing with the sewage issue, the board said it wanted to hear the Conservation Commission's read on the project before commenting on this issue.

"I would probably like to graciously listen to what the ConCom would have to say before we start proceeding as a board," said Rector.

Planning Board Chairman Frank Spriggs liked this idea as well.

"I agree with Barry, because of the sensitivity of the area we should have some comments from ConCom before we go down many of these roads," he said.

Speaking for See Terrier Farms Trust, Attorney Dan Bailey urged the board to move forward.

"I agree that this is an area that warrants comment from all the affected boards, [but] I don't want to see us going in a circle."

The board instructed Bailey and project engineer Dan Mulloy to get comments from the Conservation Commission, reply to the board in writing to town engineer Ed Pesce's comments, secure further proof of See Terrier's rights to Gardner Road, do more research on the secondary access, think about limiting the lots to one dwelling each and explore alternative septic systems and a gravelbased road instead of asphalt.

The board continued both these hearings to its May 31 and May 14

meetings, respectively. I