Nantucket Earns "Safe Harbor" Status Through 2027

Less than a month after securing so-called “safe harbor” status through October 31st of 2026, Nantucket is set to extend its protection from unfriendly 40B housing developments for another year, through December 10th of 2027.

Under state law, unfriendly 40B developments, like the controversial Surfside Crossing development on Nantucket, can only be rejected by towns that have 10 percent of their housing stock on the subsidized housing inventory (SHI) list for affordable housing or are making substantial progress toward that goal. Developments proposed under the state's 40B law can have greater density than allowed by zoning if 20 to 25 percent of the units meet the state’s definition of affordable housing.

Nantucket is making rapid progress toward that 10 percent goal. With the addition of 64 units at the town’s Ticcoma Green development off of Fairgrounds Road, which just broke ground and is expected to be occupied by 2027, Nantucket is at 8 percent, up from 7 percent last month.

“This is a huge achievement,” Affordable Housing Trust vice chair Penny Dey said.

The Ticcoma Green development is one of the single largest additions to the town’s SHI list in history, and it will give the town a two-year cushion of safe harbor. It is also a boon for the town’s large housing-insecure population.

Still, more progress will need to be made to retain safe harbor status. The percentage of the island’s homes on the list has continued to climb higher year after year, but remains well below the 10 percent threshold that would guarantee continued safe harbor.

And even reaching the 10 percent threshold isn’t a permanent solution. Nantucket’s housing crisis is more extensive than that number suggests, and the number itself can change with each census.

“Achieving the 10 percent doesn't solve the problem permanently,” Dey said.