Affordable dilemma in Badlands
Citing a saturation of affordable housing in the area, residents want Abrem Quary II to go elsewhere
BY PETER B. BRACE INDEPENDENT WRITER
No one at the special Zoning Board of Appeals meeting on May 19 said that affordable housing is a bad thing, but many attendees, most of them residents of the Badlands area, said they do not want to cram all of it into their part of the island.

Neighborhood comments came in reaction to Southborough, Mass.-based Nantucket Homes for People's presentation of phase two of its Abrem Quary Chapter 40B, which calls for 36 more units opposite phase one, just north of Blueberry Lane on the east side of South Shore Road.

"Many of us invested everything we have and have been there for 15 to 20 years to have what we have," said homeowner Barry Paulson of 25 South Shore Road. "I think it's commendable that it's [Abrem Quary I] been done, it's a nice job and there's lots of happy people, but now to go across the road to a lot that's not contiguous with two lots…?"

Paulson added that the area will be inundated with affordable housing developments if Abrem Quary two is built and that he is not looking forward to all the construction trucks going through his neighborhood that he had to deal with during the construction of Sherburne Commons and Abrem Quary part one.

"It's going to get saturated in here," he said. "Hulbert Avenue certainly isn't going to take any of it."

This second phase includes 36 more units described as bungalowstyle and smaller than the 28 units in phase two with one or two bedrooms in each for lower costs. Nantucket Homes for People's plan is for two levels of affordability based on percentages of Nantucket's median income. Twenty-five percent of the units will be sold to applicants whose qualifying household incomes are 80 percent of Nantucket's median income for $139,000 to $199,000 and the other 75 percent of the houses, will go to islanders who make 150 percent of Nantucket's median household income for $199,000 to $329,000.

Phase two would be developed and constructed on 2.4 acres divided between two lots; one north of Blueberry Lane and the other just north of Augie Ramos' junkyard.

Adding to the neighbors' and abutters' frustrations, is the eventual development of a nine-lot parcel owned by the Nantucket Housing Authority of 50 40B single-family ownership houses between its existing rental housing and the west side of South Shore Road.

Linda Williams, of 6 South Pasture Lane and a member of the Nantucket Housing Authority, agreed with Paulson but said that Abrem Quary developer Cliff Schorer's plan to put phase two on two lots, known as a scatter sites approach, is legal under 40B and in fact might work well on Nantucket if other parts of the island were more tolerant of affordable housing.

"There's lots like those lots he 's trying that on all over the island," she said. "The availability of municipal services is an issue, but there are a lot of those lots that could be scattered sites. The problem is you go anywhere out of mid-island area and the cost of land does not support 40Bs; the developer can't recoup the cost of the land."

Williams conceded that the Badlands were absorbing the brunt of all affordable housing applications, when the rest of the island community needs to be sharing the load.

At the ZBA meeting, Schorer, who did not have an eligibility letter from the Board of Selectmen confirming its belief that the two lots are eligible for 40B development, withdrew his application without prejudice. Several members of the public and the ZBA felt that without this letter, Schorer's application was incomplete. After the board voted 5-0 to accept Schorer's withdrawal, it allowed comments from the dozens of residents who showed up to voice their concerns despite the application's temporarily dead status.

"I'm Gail Holdgate and I live in phase one and I never would have been able to own a home on Nantucket," said Holdgate. "I believe it's an important project. If it goes in your neighborhood, I'm sorry, but housing is a major problem on Nantucket."

Vickie Goss of 8 Blueberry Lane agreed with Holdgate, but also with Williams.

"I'm really happy for all of these people who are living in a workingclass neighborhood already established as a community," said Goss. "We're not saying, 'No, but let's not have affordable housing.'We're saying, 'Let's not pack it all into one corner.'"

After Nantucket Homes for People gets its eligibility letter and files a new application with the ZBA, and it is filed with at the Town Clerk's office, the board then has 180 days to hear and review it, said Interim ZBA Administrator John Brescher. At the close of that sixmonth hearing period, the ZBA has

40 days to render its decision. I