voices: the community speaks of Nantucket and GHYC

January 5, 2004

LETTER TO THE EDITOR

This letter has also been sent to: The Board of Selectmen, The Conservation Committee, and The Planning Board.

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If one disregards the many arguments that are being brought against the proposed New Yacht Club, there still remains one completely irrefutable fact that cannot be changed, no matter what, and that is TRAFFIC!

There are really only three main entrances into town, with Orange and Union Streeets bearing the greatest amount. After all, they come in from Old South Road, 'Sconset, Monomoy, Pocomo, and Tom Nevers, and the greater portion of them take Orange Street, after the Rotary, into the Town and Harbor area.

This is a very slender two-lane artery, but so far [it] has been working. The biggest problem comes where Union Street connects with Frances, to join Washington Street. It's tough enough when one is approaching Town, but when one is trying to leave by that route, Washington/Francis/Union, it can sometimes be sheer misery during the summer. This is especially true when some of the obscenely long and massive trucks are trying to navigate that little turn. Often, traffic has to stop half a block away to allow them to turn.

I live on Union Street, so when I want to go out of town, I generally take Coffin St. to Washington, and that's where the misery begins. Every summer, and far into autumn, I have often encountered traffic backed up all the way to the Public Parking Lot, and if this yacht club goes through, it will be even worse.

Being a resident, I know the short cuts, and often go through the parking lot, up Lafayette to Union again, make a right, and then a left up Flora, and am on my way again. The poor visitors, who don't know about this, can be trapped there, inching along for a sometimes agonizing length of time. If the yacht club is allowed to proceed, it will only get worse.

Coming from the west, at the same bottleneck of Union and Francis, there is the additional problem of West Dover traffic, coming from Pleasant Street, trying to slip in. If there is an entrance/exit to the yacht club there as well, almost at the exact same point, it can becomes well nigh insolvable. The only recourse will be to have many more STOP signs, or a permanent traffic cop. And there's also the possibility that Union Street will become a veritable truck route.

There is no possible way to divert traffic, or speed it up, as the roads are set and immutable! This is a geographical and physical FACT. If the Yacht Club is allowed to be built, there will be absolutely nothing that can be done to rectify the ensuing mess. It will be forever!! I can imagine summer visitors finally giving up in despair, and either selling their homes, or simply stop coming to Nantucket as a vacation spot.

I have also learned that trucks will soon be required to come to the Steamer Parking Lot no more than an hour before the boat leaves. If this is true, trucks are going to create a literal Traffic Hell at certain times of the day.

The summation is one of FACTS, not opinions. There is no rhyme nor reason for such a development in such a fragile part of the Town and Island. So far, traffic has worked. But if one can imagine Union/Washington as being a main artery into the heart of town, then one must also imagine the new yacht club as a tremendous clot, which will bring great, and completely uncorrectable trouble to the the Town itself. And FOREVER!!!

This an example of pure Greed and Avarice. Two developers see a chance to make a great deal of money, and the destruction of our land and our way of life here means absolutely nothing to them. It simply must be stopped!

Paul O. Longenecker
24 Union Street