Board paves the way
Planning Board tells developer to pave section of Eel Point Road
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Eel Point Road will lose close to a mile of its rural, country lane feel as a condition of Planning Board approval to a new development.

The board said Calm Waters Trust, which seeks to develop 9.5 acres at 135 Eel Point Road, must pave around .87 of a mile of the road.

Amid protests from residents of the road, the Nantucket Land Council and the Linda Loring Nature Foundation, the Planning Board unanimously closed the public hearing on North Shore Subdivision's public hearing on Monday night, effectively ordering the paving of Eel Point Road from 73/79 to 135 Eel Point Road as part of its draft conditioned letter of approval.

Although Calm Waters Trust will return to the board's Aug. 27 meeting, it will only be to smooth out any kinks in the final draft of the board's approval letter, which in its current form states in Condition 2 about the paving of this now dirt section of Eel Point Road: "That the applicant has agreed to alter and improve the traveled surface of Eel Point Road to 20 feet in width. The infrastructure improvements proposed for Eel Point Road include relocating portions of the road that encroach on private property to a location within the roadway layout, reconstructing and paving Eel Point Road to a width of 20 feet, designing and installing drainage structures or swales for the collection or treatment of stormwater runoff, and relandscaping/ re-vegetating areas where the existing road will be abandoned."

Calm Waters Trust attorney Arthur Reade told the board that his clients, Samuel C. Sichko, Eric Frost and George Frost would rather not pave Eel Point Road just for a five-lot subdivision, but would do so if the conditions of the approval required it. The board wants this section of Eel Point Road paved not just for these five lots (four of them buildable with the potential for eight units) but because of the expected traffic traveling to and from the Linda Loring Nature Foundation's planned nature education center.

"I am not for paving just because," said Planning Board member Nat Lowell. "Each particular area needs to be looked at. Eel Point Road is not a through road like Millbrook Road; it's not a shortcut to the dump. It's a road to get to the beach or your house - it's a scenic vista."

Lowell's desire to get this section of Eel Point Road paved echoed the feeling of the rest of the board.

"If they're coming by bike or whatever they're coming by, it's the last chance to get this piece done up to 40th Pole," said Lowell. "The town is certainly never going to do it, unless the people do it themselves and this is also getting the road back into the public layout."

As he explained to abutters and neighbors of John Keane's recently approved Black Fish Lane at 36 Burnell St. in 'Sconset when they lamented proposed improvements to Burnell Street, Planning Board Chairman Frank Spriggs likened the asphalt extension on Eel Point Road to Bartlett Road where he grew up, saying that road improvement is part of the Planning Board's job and necessary for future development, regardless of personal preferences.

"I have mixed feelings about paving it and I had mixed feelings before I voted," said Spriggs. "The fact that the developer has to spend money doesn't bother me. They sell one lot and they make more money than it costs for paying for that paving.

"To me riding a bike on a dirt road is fine, but they may get blown off it and also the layout is not a right-ofway and this is a chance to correct that."

The facts and personal anecdotes did little to assuage the concerns of Eel Point Road residents who are not thrilled about the potential for increased vehicle speeds that asphalt will bring.

"The downside of paving the road is that almost all of the traffic currently going down Eel Point Road from Madaket Road [is] headed to the public beach at 40th Pole," said Ellen S. Harde of 83 Eel Point Road. "The speed of many of these cars, even on a dirt road, is pretty astonishing. My fear is that were the road to be paved, the jeeps and pickups would travel even faster, which is something we would not like to see."

The Eel Point Road Association currently maintains the private portion of Eel Point Road from just west of Dionis Beach Road to the start of Warren's Landing Road. In hopes of getting help with maintenance of Eel Point Road, the Eel Point Road Association sent a letter to Town Manager Libby Gibson on Aug. 2, 2006 asking the town to take the road so it could maintain it for the property owners. But Gibson said in her letter of Aug. 11, 2006 that the town was not in the position to do so. Since getting this answer from Gibson, Ray Carey and Dick Bellevue of the east and west Eel Point Road associations told the Planning Board they support the paving because of the rising costs of road maintenance.

Stephen Langer, who serves on the board of directors of the Linda Loring Nature Foundation, said in his letter to the board that a rural road leading to the property farther up Eel Point Road is part of the experience the nature center wants to keep.

"The mission of this organization is focused on the environmental education of children by using this property and its rural setting as an outdoor classroom," Langer said in his Aug. 2 letter to the Planning Board. "With this mission in mind, traffic traveling at a faster clip is of concern. Broadly speaking, we would prefer efforts to inhibit rather

than enhance the flow of traffic." I