voices: the community speaks of Nantucket and GHYC

To: The Planning Board
1 East Chestnut St.
Nantucket, Ma. 02554

From: Virginia F. Andrews
P.O. Box 1182
Nantucket. Ma. 02554

November 6, 2003

Greetings,

I am writing in regard to the "Great Harbor Yacht Club." I guess they couldn't call it the "Itty-Bitty Shallow Nook in the Harbor Yacht Club," could they? No one would pay a hundred thousand dollars to join that, although it much more accurately describes the location of the proposed project.

As designed, GHYC will require extensive dredging, destroying important marine habitat. An environmentally sensitive area already under stress, the creeks are still a very important part of the harbor for a host of marine life.

It will also effectively close out public access to the last part of town that welcomes ordinary people. Anyone who thinks that access can be maintained in spite of the street-straddling presence of a playground for the wealthy is delusional.

It will finish the destruction of the already very stressed residential neighborhood on York Street. Without any additional development, it is already impossible to hold a conversation in the living room at 1 East York Street during the months of July and August. The noise, dirt and fumes from the cars, trucks, and busses are already a health hazard, and a pedestrian takes their life in their hands just to cross the street. We can't keep a fence intact for 24 hours without someone hitting it. The front steps have had to be rebuilt twice in 3 years. An MCD will only make these problems worse.

In addition, the idea of trucking boats in on trailers, to be put in the water on an hour's notice, is a triumph of congestion. It's not bad enough that there is hardly room for another boat in the water, but to keep them circulating on the road during the height of the season guarantees maximum pain for minimum use. One thirty-foot boat might seem pretty small outside the jetties, but say, fifty of them all trying to make the same tide will be a big obstruction at Consue Spring on the Fourth of July.

The project as proposed is simply not scaled for Nantucket. It is not being designed for the location, but according to the time-honored principle of "ask for what you wish and see how far you get." This one comes with a side of "you could lose your boatyard" as blackmail. We have already lost the boatyard, so please do not give in easily. Send these folks back [to] the drawing board, and require that whatever they propose be on a scale Nantucketers can live with.

Sincerely,

Virginia F. Andrews
The Andrews family owns property at 55 and 58 Union and 1 East York St.