Harbor Overlay articles questioned
Proposals would preserve t water-dependent uses along t 20 percent of waterfront
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER

The Planning Board cruised through its slate of Town Meeting recommendations for municipal

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zoning articles on Feb. 21, only getting hung up on the

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three articles pertaining to the proposed Harbor

Overlay District.

Although other zoning articles drew comments

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from the board and from islanders packed into the

garage at 2 Fairgrounds Road last Thursday, none produced

more constructive criticism than Articles 49, 50

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and 51, which will create and map out a Harbor

Zoning Overlay District for Nantucket and Madaket harbors.

Rick and Melanie Kotolac, owners of Brant Point

Marine at 32 Washington St., were two of several in

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attendance to question the new district, which, if

enacted by Town Meeting voters, would preserve

water-dependent uses on about 20 percent of both

waterfronts. This will be accomplished by requiring

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the ground floor of all buildings to remain waterdependent

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uses, such as when a property changes

hands or a new property is developed. The owner can put a living space on the second floor but must create or maintain a water-dependent use on the first floor.

For the Kotolacs, who live above their ground floor chandlery business on the harbor, this only works until they leave their property to their children, who may choose not to continue the family business. The new overlay district will preclude the younger generation of Kotolacs from doing as they please with their property, said the Kotolac's attorney, Rhoda Weinman.

"We understand the intent of the article and we don't have a problem with it," Weinman said. "However, we feel we have a unique situation here. I think it's really unfair to have him not be able to leave this to his family so they can carry on as they see fit."

For his part, Rick Kotolac assured the board that Brant Point Marine will remain in place as long as he is alive.

"I'm going to run it as a marine supply business because that's what I want to do, and unless I get run over by a train, then that's what I'm going to continue to do," he said. "I would like them to have a choice and not have the town make it for them."

Old North Wharf co-owner Edward Sanford, a respectful critic of these articles ever since their introduction at the 2007 annual Town Meeting, pointed out many technical errors that he said could be corrected before Town Meeting without the articles being pulled. Sanford, like the Kotolacs, decried the restrictions of residential uses, saying that living on the water is a tradition on Nantucket.

"In Subsection D, and really all through it, it's basically saying, 'We don't like residential uses in the harbor district,'" said Sanford. "Basically, the only one [water-dependent use] I could come up with that I could do is to put a public restroom in my yard.

"That is not what the history of the Nantucket waterfront is all about. People have always, always lived around the waterfront."

But members of the Harbor Plan Implementation Committee, who wrote the articles, defended them, saying their intent was not to restrict property owner uses but to preserve the working waterfronts.

"What we're trying to do is maintain the commercial intent of our waterfront; 20 percent of this area is what we're trying to protect," HPIC member Doug Smith said. "I completely understand what Rick and his family's feelings are. [But] if we pick this article apart, it's going to wreck a whole lot of work that went into this."

Rather than allow that to happen, the board continued the public hearings for each of the articles to Monday night's Planning Board meeting and at that meeting deferred discussion again to a special meeting on March 6.

Most of this year's zoning articles got the high sign from the board, with just a few getting a no-vote or no action taken. The board gave positive recommendations for Articles 32-44, 46-48 and 53-59. The board continued Article 45 to March 3. It also continued Articles 49-52 to March 6. The board took no action on Article 60.

For complete article language, and any pertinent maps, check out the town's Web site at www.nantucketma.

gov/Pages/NantucketMA_TownMeeting/index. I