Neighbors, developer and Planning Board near accord on Burnell Street
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Neighbors and abutters of Black Fish Lane, John Keane's proposed 36 Burnell St. subdivision, successfully convinced Keane and the Planning Board to preserve, somewhat, the bucolic spirit of the Burnell Street neighborhood.

Proving that there is power in numbers, over 30 'Sconseters told the Planning Board Monday night that they do not want the Planning Board standard of road improvement applied to the now dirt-surfaced Burnell Street.

Rather than pave the street to 20 feet wide with asphalt, with a paved or brick sidewalk running from New Street to Burnell Street, the neighborhood group prefers the compromise of a roadway that is 18 feet wide, with either a dirt or chipseal surface, and a grass walking path running alongside it.

Keane is proposing a 14-lot residential development for an 8.5-acre portion of 36 Burnell St. Six of the 14 lots, which are all roughly 20,000 square feet, could have secondary dwellings on them, bringing the total potential number of units up to 20.

At the opening of his public hearing on May 14, he proposed 15 lots, but on Monday night he agreed to reduce the number to 14 and to discuss possibly decreasing the number of secondary dwellings.

In addition to the 25 letters and emails residents of the area sent to the board, and the 30-plus people who showed up for the continuing review of the Black Fish Lane subdivision, many of the neighbors met with Keane separately to reach a compromise on the board's imposition of improvements to Burnell Street. And apparently, the board heard this unified voice.

"I read all of these letters and I have to say I have never seen anything like this," said Planning Board member Nat Lowell. "I was pleased to see a couple of the letters in there had some pretty good ideas."

Alternate Planning Board member Charity Benz was also impressed with the volume of correspondence and the intellect of their content.

"Like Nat, I read all of these letters today and evaluated the statistical outcome of the letters and 21 people are advocating that the road stay the way it is," she said.

Planning Board Chairman Frank Spriggs said that while he shared the board's admiration for the cooperative efforts between Keane and his neighbors, now is the time to make improvements to Burnell Street in light of the area's future development potential. A total of 51 lots along this 'Sconset road can be developed, producing what Spriggs believes will be more than an additional 300 vehicle trips a day.

Two of the lots open for potential development are on either side of Black Fish Lane and owned by the Estate of Anita C. Dammin, from which Keane purchased the land for his development. These lots, about 2.3 acres each, could support seven or eight more lots. There are also several undeveloped lots on Plainfield Road to the north.

It is better to do the work now, Spriggs said, rather than deal with poorly improved roads that are likely to handle increasing amounts of traffic in the future, citing Monohansett Road near the airport and the Boulevard.

"Something's got to be done," he said. "You can't have that type of volume on that road. I would like to see the road paved at 18 feet, which is the minimum for two vehicles to pass, and I would like to see a grass walking path on one side of Burnell Street."

Spriggs is also advocating a chipseal surface instead of asphalt and that drainage structures be installed as well.

Planning Board vice-chairman Barry Rector disagreed, telling the residents he preferred asphalt over chipseal because it lasts longer.

"I appreciate the fact that you took some stock and really looked at things," said Rector. "As one member of the board, I really think that 18 feet is really the key to this. Chipseal versus asphalt, I know people don't like the look of asphalt, but chipseal tends to break down a lot quicker."

'Sconset residents and their legal representatives were largely pleased with the board's evolving improvement scheme for Burnell Street and said so in fewer than expected public comments.

Speaking for many of the residents, Siasconset Market owner Mark Donato said he was happy that the board heard what the neighbors were saying.

"Obviously, we would love to have the roads stay the same - 16 feet would be our optimum, 18 feet is a good compromise," said Donato. "We would love to keep it dirt or shell, but chipseal is definitely our second choice. Thank you for bringing that up. We are in agreement we are on the same page with the developer. What we did here is compromise with the developer."

Before continuing the public hearing to June 25, the board asked that Keane come up with an amount of money he could contribute to the construction of a bike path connector between the 'Sconset ends of the Polpis

and Milestone Roads bike paths. I

ROAD SURFACING BASICS

Most of Nantucket's major roads are surfaced with asphalt, composed typically of blue crushed stone mixed with tar. A rougher stone mixture is used as base layer, over which a smoother second layer of asphalt is laid.

Chipseal is a crushed stone spread over a thin layer of freshly laid asphalt. In some cases, a thinner coating of asphalt called a Fogseal can be applied to the stone to help it set.