voices: the community speaks of Nantucket and GHYC

Remarks to the Planning Board, April 22, 2004 by Jim Nettles:

I would like to begin with a question.

What does RC stand for? Residental Commercial? It that what these properties are zoned now? Does that mean that Residental and Commercial uses are together in one neighborhood?

Isn't the answer yes?

What does MCD stand for? Major Commercial Development? Does that mean something much larger than a commercial development happening under RC?

Isn't the answer yes to both of these questions?

From Section 139-11 -Major Commercial Development :

This project would qualify as a major commercial development if any one of these uses proposed were contemplated by itself:

• 5,000 sq.ft. building
• 4,000 sq.ft. gross floor area
• twenty or more parking spaces
• Place of assembly with occupancy for more than 100 persons
• Restaurant, club or bar use which taken together have a rated legal occupancy of 100 or more
• Marinas, wharfs and piers containing 250 lineal feet of tie-up space

Each of these instances would qualify by themselves as a Major Commercial Development. This project is like having six (6) different Major Commercial Developments hit our neighborhood at once. This will give you an idea of the scale of this development, and will give some sense of the threat that I feel from it.

I spoke to you at the first hearing of this project in November of last year, about this project threatening the quality of my life. At that time a member brought up the fact that this was a RC neighborhood, and seemed to suggest that I had no right to complain as this neighborhood was commercial. Well, I have since gone back and looked again at the zoning code.Yes, this property and my property is zoned RC at present. That does allow for commercial development of a certain scale . But, you are talking about something quite different, this is a change of use to a Major Commercial Development. The application before you has special rules, and you are granted special powers because the massive scale of such a project as this demands special consideration. The developer is before you asking for certain permissions and certain leniency to achieve his ends. But what about us, what about the neighborhood? Don't we deserve consideration as well?

Your code dealing with MCD calls out that the Planning Board has the right "to impose conditions, safeguards and limitations" as follows:

1. You can require landscaping, fencing, and types of landscaping.


2. You can require "structures, access streets and interior ways open to the public, parking and loading facilities, outdoor recreational facilities and utilities to be laid out in a manner which is safe, consistent with sound planning practice, and which preserves the integrity of adjacent uses and neighborhoods, including that open areas be placed as suitable buffers to conflicting adjacent uses and structures."

Let's look at what's happening here. The developer wants to combine properties into this mega project which will create this new intense use of yacht club, marina, 300 plus seat restaurant and bar, health club, boat maintenance facility, pool house operation boat launch facilites, valet boat service, and launch service. All of this on this one combined piece of land.

The developer is proposing opening Salt Marsh Way, which is now a narrow dead end street, and turning it into the main entrance to this project. Both the Town's and the Developer's engineers are saying that over 1,000 trips per day will be generated by this facility. By the Developer's own estimate, at least 70% of those trips will be happening using the Salt Marsh Way entrance. That is over 700 trips, or over 700 vehicles per day going right by my house, within several feet of my house. Imagine this, from a few cars per day going by to more than 700 cars per day. Imagine what that will do to my quality of life, to my peace and quiet.

I say that this entrance and it's more than 700 cars per day is a radical change to my neighborhood. As I read it , this Zoning Board has the power and the responsibility to insure that my quality of life and my neighbor's quality of life, and my town's quality of life will not be adversely impacted by this development. You tell me with a straight face, each of you, that 700 + cars per day going back and forth within feet of your house would not adversely impact your quality of life, your property value, and your peace of mind. Your zoning code, our zoning code, which is supposedly in place to protect the community, states that it is the responsibility of this Board to impose conditions which "preserves the integrity of adjacent uses and neighborhoods". You cannot say that allowing over 700 cars per day on what is now a narrow dead end street, creating yet another busy intersection in an already almost criminally congested area, is "preserving the integrity of adjacent uses and neighborhoods" The adjacent uses are mostly residential. So where is the regard for the neighborhood, in fact where is the regard for the community of Nantucket. Where is the buffer? Where is the protection for the existing uses? Where is the preservation of the integrity of the existing neigborhood?

This is a crazy project. It is crazy for Nantucket, for the harbor, for our neighborhood and for our island's future. I am tired of hearing about how this town and these boards don't have the power to do anything about this. I think that your code states that you have the power. I ask, in fact I implore you, to use the code. This project as proposed is a bad idea for Nantucket, for this community and for this neighborhood. Send this proposal back where it came from. Deny this proposal for this change of use for a Major Commercial Development.

Thank you.

Jim Nettles