Road width the issue with 36 Burnell Street
Two other subdivisions hung up by access issues
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Two feet of pavement appears to be the main roadblock for developer John Keane in his attempts to build a 14-lot residential subdivision at 36 Burnell St.

Keene's proposed 36 Burnell Street subdivision portion of the Locus Map is superimposed over the town's GIS Map of the area in 'Sconset.

Despite cooperation between neighbors and Keane to make the 8.5-acre development fit into the rural neighborhood as painlessly as possible, the Planning Board is still haggling over how wide Keane should make Burnell Street.

Among changes to his plan that he announced at the start of Monday night's meeting - changes that include 14 instead of 15 lots; the development's six secondary dwellings not being rented or leased separately from the main house; and the granting of an easement from the end of his cul-de-sac to land owned by the Coffin Family - Keane said he wants to improve Burnell Street into a 20-foot-wide rightof way with an 18-foot-wide road.

Although it prefers no change to the road at all, the neighborhood - which fired off 50 letters to the Planning Board for the June 11 meeting and 50 more or so for the July 9 meeting - is comfortable with Keane's proposal of an 18-foot-wide chip seal road set between Cape Cod berms with grass strips on either side.

But Planning Board members Sylvia Howard and John McLaughlin think a 20-foot-wide road would better accommodate increased traffic when the roughly 50 undeveloped lots in the area are built out, and potentially add up to 300 new vehicle trips per day.

"I'm looking at 10 to 20 years down the road," said Howard. "'Sconset is not going to stay the same, and our obligation is to look to the future for Nantucket. The road will not be sufficient."

Specifically, all members of the board, along with the 'Sconset Trust, are concerned about the remaining property owned by the Estate of Anita J. C. Dammin that could support eight to 10 more lots at about 2.3 acres each. There are also several undeveloped lots to the north on Plainfield Road. Planning Board member Barry Rector seemed hesitant to rule on Keane's project because he had not seen a preliminary plan for the Dammin property, but Planning Board Chairman Frank Spriggs said the board should not base its decision on what other property owners might do with their land. Fellow member Nat Lowell suggested exploring some sort of compromise that could include speed humps, a weaving of the road back and forth and streetlights.

But, as Planning Director Andrew Vorce explained to the board:

"The Planning Board's responsibility is to look at all development that is going to happen on that road, but you cannot put a restriction on that road that limits the rights of property owners along it," he said. "The only time we can put conditions is when they don't have any rights on these roads. I do not recommend putting any conditions on that road."

Keane returns to the board's July 23 meeting to continue ironing out this issue.

PIPPEN'S WAY PLANS

See Terrier Farms Trust's plan to develop 20.9 acres at 12 Gardner Road is not getting the same warm reception from its neighbors as Keane's 'Sconset project is. The developer took hits from all sides Monday night: from the Nantucket Land Council, abutters, neighbors and board members.

The gist of the concern centers on access to the subdivision, and the environmental impacts of siting eight houses with septic systems so close to a nearby pond and Nantucket Harbor just to the north. Its 1,000-foot-plus access road mandates a secondary access road for emergency vehicles that would connect with South Valley Road, a plan none of See Terrier's neighbors like.

The developer is also claiming rights to Gardner Road, hoping to improve it to 33 feet and pave it from Polpis Road down to its access road.

NORTH SHORE SUBDIVISION

Access is also the issue for a proposed development at 135 Eel Point Road. The Nantucket Land Council contends that the developer cannot legally do this development because of a frontage deficiency issue resulting from a 1992 subdivision of the land. Land Council Executive Director Cormac Collier argues that at least one of the four developable lots of the 9.7-acre property must have the minimum 250 feet of frontage on Eel Point Road to comply with the 1992 subdivision that allowed just 50 feet for Lot Three of that subdivision.

The board asked that the developer's representatives return to its July 23 meeting to give Vorce the time he needs to discern whether the Land Council

is correct in its contentions. I