Conservation Commission Approves Massive Expansion Of Geotubes At 'Sconset Bluff

After years of debate and a four-month public hearing, the Conservation Commission on Thursday approved a nearly 3,000-foot expansion of the Sconset Beach Preservation Fund’s erosion-control geotube project at the base of ‘Sconset Bluff. But the so-called battle of the bluff is far from over.

While the expansion—to the north and south of the existing geotube system—still needs a favorable town meeting vote to proceed, the green light from the ConCom marks the largest approval for the project since it was permitted 10 years ago for a roughly 950-foot stretch of beach below Sconset Bluff. The ConCom voted 4-1—with chair Seth Engelbourg opposed—to condition the project, a joint proposal with the Select Board, under state and local regulations.

In its new permit, the SBPF will need to abide by a strict set of conditions, including maintaining 15 feet of unobstructed beach between the edge of the project and the mean high water mark. The SBPF must also monitor the project regularly and contribute nearly 106,000 cubic yards of nourishment sand per linear foot of the project—an amount determined by the town’s Natural Resources Department, which SBPF legal counsel Richard Nylen lambasted as “punitive.”

“If that’s 106,000 cubic yards that’s applied over five years, this project is dead,” Nylen told the ConCom last month. “I know that you don’t look at money, but I will tell you that this would end this discussion.”

Mitigation sand — a requirement under the SBPF’s initial permit to offset erosion north and south of the geotubes — has been a major sticking point over months of back-and-forth among town officials, the SBPF, conservation organizations, and homeowners on the island’s east end. It was a sticking point in 2021, as well, when the ConCom ordered the original project to be removed over a violation of the SBPF’s permit for mitigation sand.

Since the removal order, however, the Select Board - which appoints the members of the Conservation Commission - has steadily purged commissioners who have been critical of SBPF and the geotube project. Those members included Ashley Erisman, Maureen Phillips, and Ian Golding. A fourth member, Mark Beale, resigned in protest last July, stating that the Select Board had sabotaged the commission. The shakeup set the stage for SBPF to join forces with the town in submitting a joint notice of intent to expand the geotubes in December 2023.

According to the SBPF, its obligation for mitigation sand ended in 2021, when the ConCom ordered the project to be removed. But the town’s legal counsel argued that the SBPF’s permit remained active until January 2025—an additional three-plus years when the sand deficit grew. That disagreement has led to two vastly different numbers for the sand deficit itself. The SBPF argued its deficit is just over 26,000 cubic yards, a far cry from the 105,465 cubic yards determined by town officials.

Nylen had recently proposed an adaptive sand mitigation approach, requiring the SBPF to dump only as much sand on the project as the bluff loses each year. But that, too, was rejected.

“For the town to actually ask for less sand than is required, what the town is doing is jeopardizing neighboring properties north and south by not providing the sand needed to hold those banks in place,” said Trey Ruthven, an attorney representing the Nantucket Land & Water Council. “Additional homes, Sankaty Head Lighthouse, they’re all in danger of seeing excess erosion if this volume isn’t met.”

The new order of conditions puts the SBPF in a position to contribute a “surplus” supply and an “excessive volume” of sand over the bluff, SBPF president Josh Posner and attorney Meredith Moldenhauer wrote in a statement Thursday night. That amount of sand would likely mean either barging additional sand to the island or sourcing it from island pits at the SBPF’s expense, a cost that now puts the project in question once again.

“SBPF is now in a far too familiar and uncomfortable position; with an approved order, for a critically needed erosion control project that would save the bluff, homes, Baxter Road, the Sankaty Lighthouse, and protect the tax base, that includes the extreme make-up sand requirement similar to what killed the pilot project,” Posner and Moldenhauer stated. “We hope to engage with our partner, the Select Board, and see if there is a way forward.”

But for Engelbourg, as well as members of the town’s Natural Resources Department, the objective in conditioning the project is to make a data-driven decision on the amount of sand required. The ConCom, Engelbourg said, should not make findings based on what’s reasonable.

“The point here is that it is not up to us to determine what [the SBPF] determines is an appropriate amount of sand mitigation,” Engelbourg said. “It’s our job, whether you like it or not, to determine what is the required number. When there is a permit in place with conditions, they must be followed or amended. If we’re not following them, then we might as well take this entire permit … delete all the conditions and have it say nothing, because that is our job. Our job is to attempt to permit projects and condition projects in a way that those conditions minimize adverse impacts to resource areas.”

ConCom member Linda Williams, on the other hand, stood by Nylen in arguing the 105,000 cubic yards of mitigation sand is punitive.

“I don’t want to set this up to fail again, and I don’t want to set something up that’s artificial, that isn’t necessarily based in fact or science,” Williams said.

The SBPF had previously proposed a near 3,000-foot expansion in 2019, though the ConCom narrowly denied it on a 4-3 vote. Since that time, the SBPF has been at loggerheads with conservation organizations and some members of the ConCom. The SBPF repeatedly came under fire for violations of its permit, primarily stemming from a deficit in the amount of mitigation sand required to be poured on top of the project to keep the geotubes covered and counter down-beach erosion.

Those violations culminated in the commission’s 2021 order for the SBPF to remove the geotubes from the beach, a ruling that was appealed by the SBPF but ultimately upheld by Nantucket Superior Court Judge Mark C. Gildea. With a removal order in its hands for the multi-million-dollar project, SBPF President Josh Posner said in 2023 that the group would back away from its decades-long effort “with a profound sense of disappointment.”

But just nine months later, the SBPF declared the project was not dead, filing a joint notice of intent with the Select Board on a proposal to expand the geotubes once again. The town, meanwhile, is working on a separate project to relocate Baxter Road and its utilities, and to provide access to Sankaty Head Lighthouse.

The expansion now heads to the Annual Town Meeting on May 3 for a vote to lease or license the town beach from 41 to 119 Baxter Road.