Neighbors of Pippen's Way development seek concessions
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Conceding that they likely cannot stop See Terrier Farms Trust's Pippen's Way development off Gardner Road, yet hoping to lessen the impact of the development on their neighborhood, neighbors and abutters fired alternatives and cautions at the Planning Board on Monday night.

Abutters, including the Nantucket Land Council, Shawkemo Ducklands, LLC, Tim Russert and Maureen Orth, and Steve Slosek all called for careful consideration of a nearby pond, of the fragile wetlands nearby and of Nantucket Harbor itself because of the potential for eight septic systems on the 20.9-acre parcel.

The development, once a farm owned by Catherine Nasser, is located in the Land Use General-One zone north of Moors End Farm where 40,000 square feet is the minimum lot size. Seven of the lots range from .92 of an acre to 1.1 acres with an eighth buildable lot at 8.7 acres. The ninth lot is the access road. Currently, a house sits on Lot Eight and a cottage and barn on Lot Seven. Inclusion of secondary dwellings could bump up the house total to 16.

Slosek, owner of Moor's End Farm, told the board that this part of the island should really be three-acre zoning instead of the one-acre zone that it is now. If Pippen's Way does get approval, Slosek worries that he will not be able to farm within 500 feet of the development because of agricultural setback regulations governing farms and new wells.

The former farmland, Slosek said, should just be left alone.

"It's never had a plow put to it since 1938," said Slosek. "It's a gem, it's a huge property that's worth preserving, not as a development.

"The people down in Shimmo spend tens of thousands of dollars just keeping it [Shimmo Pond Road] just the way it is; that crappy, crummy road scratches everybody's cars, beats trucks to death, isn't safe, isn't passable. If you had to bring a water truck down there for a fire you'd turn her over sure as heck, at the base of that hill. This whole thing is misconstrued and as far as I'm concerned is exactly what people will do for money."

Russert, of 7 Juniper Hill, who donated a .35-of-an-acre conservation easement to the Land Council encompassing part of the pond near Pippen's Way and another on his vacant land at 9 Juniper Hill, urged the board to visit the area to get a sense of how fragile it is and what the impacts will be on wildlife, the pond and the harbor. He, like the Planning Board, said it is vital that the board waits until the Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program survey for endangered species on the property is done before rendering its decision.

"I think that study is critical and there's no need to rush until we hear about that study," he said. "I walk this property. I live on this property with my wife and my son. If you look at the animals, the birds, the habitat; you will see things you will never see on this island. It is precious. Give this commission the opportunity to find out exactly what is there and what's living there. I think we're all going to be very pleasantly surprised at some of the extraordinary creatures that have found a home in this beautiful area."

Others lamented the shifting of Gardner Road into its original planned layout, and asked the Planning Board to center the road because it is likely to lose its country feel when the brush is cut back and the road is paved. Also, putting this road back into its initial rightof way means taking more of some property owners' land to do so.

"There's no reason why, if they improve the road, they can't move it into the middle of the 33-foot right of way," said Paul Bennett of 4 Gardner Road.

Pippen's Way engineer, Dan Mulloy of Site Design Engineering of Middleboro, Mass., told Bennett and the board that he moved the road as far to the north as he could while remaining in the right of way.

Shawkemo Ducklands, LLC attorney Ed Woll, Jr. did offer a suggestion that could at least help with stormwater runoff from Pippen's Way into a pond wetland on the property. Woll suggested, and the board asked See Terrier Farms Trust to consider, moving Pippen's Way and its drainage structures roughly southeast to the top of a rise so the road will not drop down into a depression that would draw water and channel it into the wetlands.

The board asked Mulloy to look at Woll's suggestion of moving Pippen's Way, to get the endangered species report from Mass. Heritage, consider a board suggestion that they donate more than $10,000 to off-site bike path construction and install water quality monitoring wells between the development and nearby wetlands before the next meeting on Aug. 27.