SOUTH SHORE DEVELOPMENT GETS EARLY NOD FROM BOARD
Windom Realty Trust principle Joseph Marcklinger secured approval from the Planning Board for his preliminary plan to develop a six-lot subdivision off South Shore Road at the board's Jan. 14 meeting.

Marcklinger's land, assessed at $2,471,900, is at 3, 5 and 7 South Shore Road, on the west side of the road in the Limited-Use-General-Two zone where twoacre lots are allowed.

Telling the board he intends to build both primary and secondary dwellings on his lots, Marcklinger said he would not be requesting waivers for his development and that he would tie into town sewer and water.

The board liked what it saw and told Marcklinger so, but Planning Board member Nat Lowell did have one request.

"When phase two [of Abrem Quary) comes in and you know, that's counting all the work that's been done in this area, the road has been kind of chewed up," Lowell said in asking Marcklinger if he could fix the entrance to South Shore Road by narrowing its flared opening at Surfside Road.

Marcklinger told the board that he could fix the flare out and then Planning Board Chairman Frank Spriggs commended him for submitting a decent plan.

"I think you have a very good plan," he said. "I just want to make sure you meet all bylaws so you can come back to the public hearing process."

Marcklinger did not indicate when he would be submitting a definitive plan to the Planning Board.

THE NEW BEST VIEW IN TOWN Taking in the view looking down Main Street usually means being lucky enough to score the bench at the Pacific National Bank.

Starting this summer, however, downtown denizens will have a new place to gawk at summer in motion. Last week, the Nantucket Islands Land Bank purchased 3,160 square feet of the 5,227- square-foot vacant lot at 1 Fair St. on the corner of Fair and Main streets opposite Murray's Toggery.

Land Bank Executive Director Eric Savetsky said the Land Bank is delighted to secure this rare slice of in-town open space. The Land Bank Commission is planning to turn the lot into a park with a lush green lawn and, yes, more than one park bench. Savetsky said that the privet hedges running along Fair and Main streets will be transplanted along the lot's southern and western boundaries.

CAPEWIND REVISES CORPS PERMIT Cape Wind Associates filed a revised version of a permit application for its Nantucket Sound wind farm project with the Army Corps of Engineers this month.

Although the Minerals Management Service took over as the lead federal agency reviewing the Cape Wind project, Cape Wind needed to revise its Army Corps Section 404 Clean Water Act application. The layout of the wind turbines changed a bit with the state's territorial boundary moved further out to sea, so 10 turbines were moved back into federal waters. An additional 20 turbines had to be shifted for archeologically sensitive areas, reduction of impacts on commercial fishing and on commercial marine navigation. And instead of scour mats at the bottom of each turbine monopole, rock armoring will be used.

Cape Wind also refined its lighting plan with comments from the Federal Aviation Administration that came out in November 2005 and will enclose a 2,925-squarefoot area to help it horizontally drill space for the 115-kilovolt power transmission lines from the wind farm onto land. For these and other revisions, the Army Corps needs public comments to proceed with its review of the project. Cape Wind's application can be seen at www.nae.usace.army.mil. Send comments by Feb. 21 to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England District, Regulatory Division, Karen Adams or Kevin Kotelly, 696 Virginia Road, Concord, Mass. 01742-2751. Call Adams or Kotelly at 800-343-4789 or 800-362-4367.

ZONING NIRVANA The Planning Board will hold a public hearing for all its zoning articles for the upcoming Town Meeting on Feb. 21. Expect this meeting to cover such topics as new commercial districts and re-zoning of residential areas.

The meeting is at 7 p.m. in the garage at 2 Fairgrounds Road. There's also the regularly scheduled Nantucket Planning & Economic Development Commission meeting on Feb. 4 at 7 p.m. in the same location. Call 228-7233 or 228-7237 for details on both meetings.

OWLING AND WOODCOCKING By now, anyone who spends his free time seeking out birds here in the wintertime should be aware of the snowy owl haunting the barrier beach between Wauwinet and the Coskata Woods.

But there are other owls to see on Nantucket. There are also the odd-looking, odd-flying woodcocks that live here year-round. Both birds are the subjects of two field trips being offered by the Maria Mitchell Association.

The Owl Prowl takes place Feb. 20 at 6:30 p.m., meeting at Maria Mitchell's Natural Science Museum on the corner of Vestal and Milk streets. Dr. Bob Kennedy, Maria Mitchell's director of Natural Science, and expert island birder Ken Blackshaw will lead this workshop that starts in a classroom and later migrates out into the night in search of owls.

March 22's Woodcock Walk at 6:30 p.m. begins in the same location as the Owl Prowl with the same avian gurus leading a search for the elusive yet spectacular

woodcock performing its airborne mating ritual. I