Changes in store for Tom Nevers beginning this summer
Association will begin implementation of approved area plan
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
This summer, the Tom Nevers Association wants to get going on an ambitious slate of items taken from an area plan endorsed by the Nantucket Planning & Economic Development Commission at its March 31 meeting.

The product of two years of work by the Tom Nevers Civic Association and an 11-member area plan steering committee, this is the fourth such island area planning document to be completed - a fifth, Surfside's, is in the draft stages. The plan is broken up into elements used in the town's Chapter 41-81D Master Plan that is now being written.

These elements include Land Use, Housing, Economic Development, Natural and Cultural Resources and Open Space and Recreation.

"It's been a long process that's gone on about two years and we tried to incorporate all of the suggestions that were made to us," Tom Nevers Civic Association president Dual Macintrye told the commission. "We are focusing now, per your approval, on the implementation of all of this this summer because we didn't want this to be a plan that sits on a shelf."

The Planning Commission praised the plan.

"They've done what I think is an excellent job of outreach to their neighbors," said Planning Director Andrew Vorce. "I think a lot of work went into it and I think it's a well-done effort."

Macintyre said on Monday that he and the TNCA have around seven recommendations that they plan to work on this summer. These include under their respective element headings:

• Land Use; meeting with the town's Roads and Right of Way Committee to determine how to meld Tom Nevers' right of way plan with the town's,

• Housing; exploring voluntary restrictions on secondary dwellings through an island agency and checking into forming a clearing house to investigate and report zoning violations in Tom Nevers,

• Economic Development; writing guidelines for home-based businesses, camps, daycare centers, cooking and meat-smoking operations, landscaping and construction business,

• Natural and Cultural Resources; meeting with the Nantucket Conservation Foundation and discussing TNCA's recommendations that include creating walking, horse and bike paths, and the addition of unpaved parking areas, controlled burning and selective cutting,

• Services and Facilities; water quality testing around Tom Nevers for which the TNCAwill need to find volunteers to collect and process water samples following a plan to be developed by Dr. Sarah Oktay at the UMass Boston Nantucket Field Station,

• Circulation; for safety reasons, relocate the Nantucket Regional Transit Authority bus stop now at the intersection of Tom Nevers and Milestone roads to the pull-over on the left side of Milestone Road at the top of Bean Hill.

The recommendations from the 33-page area plan will all be implemented eventually, but the ones above are the most urgent, said Macintyre, who added that he wants to involve as many property owners as possible in putting the plan to work rather than relying on a core group of "stalwart people."

"We want to get started with this," he said. "The idea is to form small groups of people subcommittees to deal with each of these implementation areas and then the Tom Nevers Civic Association will oversee and track the work of these groups."

Macintyre and the TNCAwill send out a newsletter to all property owners in Tom Nevers to inform them of the details of the final version of the area plan, news of the process and also to issue a call for volunteers. The TNCA sent three newsletters to its members during the course of development of the area plan.

For a complete copy of this area plan, visit Nantucket's planning offices at 2 Fairgrounds Road or

call 228-7237. I