After Years Of Delays, Select Board Endorses New Nantucket Harbor Action Plan

Seven years after it was supposed to be complete, the Select Board has finally approved a new harbor action plan for Nantucket.

The old plan, adopted in 2009, was intended to last 10 years. Now, after seven years of delays, the Select Board has approved a plan that was supposed to have been finished before the COVID-19 pandemic.

This is not the end of the line: the plan will now go to the Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs for state approval.

The plan, drafted with UMass Boston’s Urban Harbors Institute, will, if supported, be used as a guide by the state and the town when considering policies related to Nantucket’s harbors. The plan, which contains dozens of recommendations across a wide variety of categories, was included in full in the Select Board’s agenda packet, available here.

“Nantucket's harbors are central to the island's identity, economy, and quality of life. They support commercial and recreational fishing, marine transportation, tourism, shellfishing, boating, waterfront businesses, public recreation, and diverse coastal habitats,” an executive summary of the plan reads in part. “At the same time, Nantucket and Madaket Harbors face growing pressures from climate change, increasing tourism, aging waterfront infrastructure, declining water quality, competing waterfront uses, and degrading natural resources.”

The plan covers both Nantucket Harbor and Madaket Harbor.

The 2009 plan contained over 100 recommendations, of which at least 80 were “completed or mostly completed.”

Many of the recommendations in the new plan relate to monitoring, research, planning, and public outreach. Several call for hiring new town staff. Some of the plan’s most notable recommendations are listed below:

• Propose new zoning bylaws that take into consideration harbor waters, such as updating stormwater and surface water flow standards and requirements for major commercial developments and redeveloped sites.
• Where possible, expand no-build and no-disturbance buffer zones to ensure that improvements to support recreational uses near wetlands do not harm these natural resources by increasing use beyond the area’s carrying capacity.
• Explore the feasibility of a shellfish co-op for commercially harvested species. A co-op could support efforts to revive shanties, expand shore support and training space, facilitate bulk packaging and marketing, promote Community Supported Fisheries, provide information on factors influencing the market price, and help secure more affordable diesel fuel.
• Investigate the potential to dredge between the Ditch and Hither Creek to facilitate the re-establishment of historic herring and eel populations in Long Pond. Dating back to pre-colonial times, Long Pond supported a large eel fishery and recreational/subsistence fishing. Recent observations in Spring 2015 show that herring are in Hither Creek. Additionally, raising Madaket Road and replacing culverts with bridges, accompanied by dredging the sand deltas that have formed, would allow more water flow and herring and eel movement towards Long Pond.
• The Town of Nantucket, in coordination with the Steamship Authority and other harbor users as appropriate, should study the feasibility of developing a second commercial dock that would be capable of handling large vessels carrying passengers, goods, and vehicles in an emergency. A facility located outside of the downtown area may also help alleviate some of the truck traffic problems and reduce the hazardous materials transported through populated areas. The study should also evaluate other alternatives for addressing these emergencies and determine which measures can and should be taken to establish immediate temporary off-loading facilities in any such emergency.
• Following State approval of this harbor plan, MassDEP will meet with the Town on a biannual basis to review and discuss any possible noncompliance with Chapter 91 license conditions and appropriate actions.
• Submit a warrant article at the next Town Meeting to increase the ferry embarkation fee from the current $0.50 per passenger to at least $1.00. Also, work with state legislators and other Cape and island communities to advance a bill enabling an increase in the fee to greater than $1.00. Then, advance a warrant article at Town Meeting to adopt and implement the maximum fee authorized.