State: Site of Miacomet subdivision may contain unmarked human burials
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Members of the Miacomet Conservation Association are hoping Nantucket's ancestors can help them in their efforts to reconfigure a proposed 19-lot cluster subdivision.

In response to the group's request for a superseding order of conditions from the Department of Environmental Protection, the Massachusetts Historical Commission has requested an archeological survey of the land at 120 Miacomet Road where Bluefin, LLC is proposing a 19-lot residential development.

In a May 10 letter to Bluefin attorney William F. Hunter, Brona Simon, the Massachusetts Historical Commission's executive director, said she is concerned that this part of the island is near 17thcentury Native American habitation and burial sites.

"Portions of the property are considered highly sensitive for containing ancient and historical period archeological resources, including unmarked human burials," Simon wrote. "The archeological sensitivity of the property is based on its very favorable environmental setting, including proximity to Miacomet Pond and associated wetlands, with numerous recorded archeological sites in similar settings nearby."

Since receiving Simon's request, Bluefin hired the Pawtucket, R.I. firm of Public Archeological Laboratory, Inc. (PAL) to do a complete survey of 120 Miacomet Road, despite Bluefin's belief that historical remains only exist beneath part of the property's driveway, Hunter said on Monday.

"If Mass. Historical asks for the survey to be done, then you do it," said Hunter. "This is part and parcel of a superceding order being issued from the DEP."

Property owners along Miacomet Road and Pond View Drive requested the DEP order of conditions because they believe the ConCom issued its Jan. 3 order of conditions prematurely, saying that Bluefin did not submit stormwater management calculations meeting the town's Stormwater Management Policy in time for the ConCom's public hearing. The property owners also allege that the commission did not consider evidence of missing information in Bluefin's notice of intent and questioned whether the commission ever received this information.

Additionally, the neighbors of the project charge Bluefin with not going the distance to protect Miacomet Pond from effluent that could leak from the cluster's septic systems, despite Health Inspector Richard Ray's testimony that groundwater in this area flows not to the pond, but toward the ocean.

On March 12, the Planning Board approved Bluefin's development, dubbed Ellen's way, and on April 2, the Miacomet Conservation Association appealed that decision in Nantucket Superior Court, asking that Bluefin change the location of the cluster so it is sited not at the south end of the 28.8-acre property - at the back of properties along Pond View Drive - but at an existing sand pit that the developer plans to fill in and landscape.

Some neighbors, however, are not pleased with the compromise.

"The cluster development is about preserving natural land, and their proposal offers a gravel pit and then builds on natural land that has not been disturbed, so it's a real reversal of what the whole purpose of the cluster concept is, which is to preserve natural open vegetative space for everyone. Instead, they're offering something that has been mined for many years and is inaccessible to the public from any main road, and they're getting credit for [landscaping] on a pit to build on what is essentially undisturbed land," said John Devaney of 10 Pond View Drive.

Part of that preservation of natural open land is what Simon is more concerned with: what archeological remains are on the property. Although she did not specifically say that excavation at the sand pit must cease until PAL completes its archeological survey for Bluefin, Hunter said activity at the pit continues today.

He said he expects it to take 30 days to get the necessary permits for doing the survey and presumes PAL will finish sometime in August.

"The owners of the property are satisfied with the progress to date and are just going through the various permitting procedures and feel that sooner or later they'll come to the end of the process and they're very confident that they'll build their project," Hunter said.