Town, Electric Co. weigh options on Candle Street
National Grid considers subdivision alternative; Town mulls $30-$50 million purchase
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
At a joint meeting of the Board of Selectmen and the Planning Commission yesterday morning, town officials discussed the concept of purchasing National Grid's 2.2-acre Candle Street property for between $30 and $50 million to build a 200- to 300- space parking garage.

ROB BENCHLEY/The Independent The site of the island's old electric and gas-generating plants is clean of contaminants, National Grid says.

This idea is one of a few that the selectmen and members of the Nantucket Planning & Economic Development Commission introduced, and served as the first public announcement that a parking garage is one of the potential uses for the property.

The parking garage option arose during a Board of Selectmen executive session in September 2006, said Planning Director Andrew Vorce, who outlined the town's options at the workshop.

"Basically, the ranges are an all-ornothing type of decision," he said. "The all-decision is to purchase the property for public use for the $30-to- $50 million price. The nothing-decision, which has happened quite frequently, is to sit back until various people come forward with permits and then respond to them at that time."

Although no plan exists for use of the land that is still owned by Nantucket's power supplier, National Grid, the company did secure an approval-not-required plan approval from the Planning Board at its Dec. 10 meeting to delineate the perimeter of its downtown holdings. National Grid's ANR plan locked in current zoning for the next three years.

It also laid the groundwork for a multi-use subdivision plan for the property that National Grid plans to file, not so much to develop the land as to get Nantucket talking about how to best use the property.

"The (ANR) plan that got filed last night is all part of a plan we had several years ago to clean up the site and to get new rights in New Whale Street," National Grid Vice President Dave Fredericks said yesterday at the workshop. "We have some thoughts of subdivision of the property that we may go forward with."

Fredericks stressed that National Grid is acutely cognizant of how important it is for the next use of the property to integrate into the overall scheme of the downtown area, considering that the proposed nearby transportation hub, the relocation of Harbor Fuel's tank farm and the harbor plan are all still in motion.

Although workshop attendees set no deadline for an actual town plan for use of the property, selectmen and planners aired many of the issues that would need to be solved before any development plan is seriously considered.

Although the site was used for the industrial energy uses of coal gasification, storage and diesel power generation, which ended in 1996, the state's Department of Environmental Protection said the land is safe for residential use. Fredericks said that the site is almost completely clean, to which Vorce said there could be as many as 20 lots and 40 dwelling units on the land under existing zoning.

Selectman Michael Kopko said the property should first be included in the proposed harbor overlay district to keep consistency in the district and to protect it as a potentially waterdependent use. National Grid has a DEP Chapter 91 Waterways license for the land, but Fredericks said water access is only for emergency power generation situations and that no public access to the waterfront is allowed through the license.

This land was originally in the proposed harbor overlay district, but was removed. The Harbor Plan Implementation Committee is considering putting it back in, said HPIC member Sarah Oktay.

"My opinion is that the property is so integral to the whole waterfront that it should be included in the district," said Kopko. "Leaving this one big undeveloped property out of the district seems like we're missing a big opportunity."

Financing the purchase of such a garage would require a massive loan, ideally a low-interest one that Vorce said might be serviced by a special tax district set up to fund it over a 23-year period. Vorce added that parking fee revenues could also help pay off the loan.

Another option suggested by Planning Commissioner Nat Lowell would be to enter into a long-term lease with National Grid. Fredericks said the company would charge the open market monthly lease rate based on the value of the property, and that the town might be better off purchasing the property.

With suggestions of downtown parking needs analyses, environmental issues, public access, Chapter 91 financial planning and housing issues flying around the Land Bank conference room yesterday morning, Vorce finally asked the selectmen and the NP&EDC near the end of the meeting if they would be modifying their parking garage idea for the property.

Selectmen Chairman Whitey Willauer could not give a definitive answer, but Fredericks' announcement of National Grid's subdivision filing plans is likely to motivate all parties toward choosing a use for the property

in the near future. I