Low Beach dune fields on the market for $30 million
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
Former Barker Gallery owner James Hunt Barker and his friend Kenneth White Douglas Jr. are selling nearly 10 acres of open land off Low Beach Road for $30 million.

The coastal dune fields at 90 Low Beach Road are in two parcels, 7.1 acres and 2.4 acres, and in the Land-Use- General-3 (LUG-3) zoning district, denoting three-acre zoning.

Although Barker said in a legal ad published last week that the land has the potential for 56 houses. With three-acre zoning, however, only three primary and three secondary dwellings would be possible. For his part, Barker would like to see a developer buy the property strictly for summer recreation purposes.

"One of the least difficult uses to pass all regulations prior to ownership, a surveyor on island has pointed out, a developer could move ahead rapidly to create the finest beach area on the East Coast," said Barker in his ad. "It is hoped by Barker and Douglas that recreational use would be chosen over a good struggle for the right of fifty-six houses on seven acres parallel to Low Beach Road."

Reached last Thursday on his way from Chicago, Ill. to Louisville, Ky., Barker clarified his idea of "recreational," saying that he envisioned squash and tennis courts with membership clubs for each, and a railroad track carrying people down to the beach across the dunes.

"I'm a great believer that 50 years after you're gone no one knows your personality, so I think you need to do the best you can with what you have to work with," said Barker. "I'm divided in my thinking in, 'Oh, don't develop it and [make it fun for children].

"It's the only area on the island that's growing out in the ocean instead of being taken away."

Barker bought the property - currently assessed at $500,900 for 90 Low Beach Road and $3,017,100 for the 2.4-acre lot connecting it to the ocean - in 1980 for $20,000 when it was valued at $80,000, but he never developed it. Now, as his ad describes, he and Douglas "having arrived in the twilight years" of their lives, are being forced to do some estate planning and some of the first items to be disposed of are these two parcels.

"It has the potential of being worth $100 million, but who knows what will happen, who will come up with what," said Barker. "[However], I don't want anything bad to happen to Nantucket."

If Barker's land does sell at or just below his asking price it would be the highest amount ever paid for residential land on Nantucket, eclipsing Calm Waters Trust's sale of 135 and 137 Eel Point Road to Nantucket Lot 51, LLC, for $26.5 million at the end of August, which is assessed at $19,454,900. That property's ecosystem is similar to the Barker land with rolling dune fields leading out to the beach and the ocean. Barker has yet to list his property with any of the island's real estate firms, promising in his legal ad to dole out the standard commission to the broker

who finds a buyer for the property. I