Nantucket Town Government Roundup, Dec. 29 - Jan. 16

As the new year begins, Nantucket’s municipal government continues to work. Here are the stories we’re tracking to start 2026. First, a few items we haven’t covered elsewhere.

• Nantucket’s long-delayed harbor action plan is being pushed off yet again. The Select Board voted unanimously to extend the contract with UMass Boston, which is helping to create the plan, through June of 2026. Originally, the plan, which is meant to replace an outdated 2009 plan covering both Nantucket and Madaket harbor, was supposed to be complete in 2019. It’s now seven years late.
• The Select Board also expressed skepticism that a plan to expand the Sconset Bluff geotube installation, which was initially included on the Annual Town Meeting warrant last year but was tabled, could pass muster with voters this spring. Several significant issues with the project remain, including a pending legal appeal and an unfinished environmental review by the state. Select Board member Brooke Mohr said she was “not sure” it was possible that it could pass, and several members of the Board worried that Sconset Beach Preservation Fund representatives might be underestimating the public’s negative perception of the project, particularly the Fund’s longstanding inability to provide the sacrificial sand demanded by their Conservation Commission permit. However, the Board ultimately opted to let the voters decide at Town Meeting. “I'm getting a headache here,” Select Board member Malcolm MacNab said of the Sconset Bluff project. “I'm sorry, I've heard this for five years, or four years. The same discussion continuing: we need more time, there's things to be done. It goes on and on and on…the sand issue has been around for as long as I can remember, and it seems all of a sudden we're going to resolve it, after all this time? Good luck.”
• The Planning Board made several recommendations on Town Meeting warrant articles on Thursday. Among other decisions, they are recommending in favor of allowing large restaurants by special permit in the commercial neighborhood (CN) district, allowing additional bedrooms for apartment buildings by special permit when the whole building is eligible for inclusion on the subsidized housing inventory list, and creating a legal definition of a Community Land Trust.
• Voters at the Annual Town Meeting will have the chance to weigh in on whether Nantucket should create a Stormwater Utility tasked with protecting water quality and preventing flooding that would be authorized to issue permits for construction and collect fees and penalties. Many of the details of how the Stormwater Utility would work remain unclear.
• The Conservation Commission approved a Land Bank request to relocate a portion of Falmouth Avenue, near Cisco Beach, further inland to protect the road from erosion and sea-level rise. Falmouth Avenue provides access to the Cisco Beach parking lot. The relocation will disturb a portion of the endangered sandplain grassland habitat to the north of the current roadway, but the Conservation Commission determined that protecting access to Cisco Beach would provide significant public benefit, justifying the relocation.

And now, some stories we’ve written about in full:

• The Board of Health, Planning Board and Select Board are planning a joint meeting to discuss a potential Board of Health ban on so-called “nitrogen loading credits,” which could reduce nitrogen pollution but hamper housing production efforts.
• The Select Board passed an emergency regulation capping the amount of yard waste any individual contractor can deliver to town facilities at 100 tons per month, unanimously approved an addition to the Saltmarsh Senior Center, and approved the annual town budget for inclusion on Town Meeting warrant.
• The first shotgun season of the Land Bank’s new agricultural processing facility was a success. Overall, the number of deer taken on Nantucket hit a record this year due to an extended hunting season.
• Negotiations between the Nantucket Planning and Economic Development Commission and Hillary Hedges Rayport collapsed Thursday, setting the stage for a Town Meeting showdown between the two competing reform proposals.
• The Harbor and Shellfish Advisory Board unanimously endorsed a Nantucket Land and Water Council pilot project for eelgrass-friendly boat meetings.
• Nantucket is set to extend its so-called “safe harbor” status from unfriendly 40b developments through 2027, the Affordable Housing Trust announced.
• The Affordable Housing Trust also voted unanimously to authorize $3,725,000 in funding for the so-called “New Downtown” development on Sparks Avenue to help ensure that eight of the project’s 32 dwelling units remain affordable.
• Nantucket’s representatives at the State House and Senate updated the Select Board on a series of legislative efforts, including bills related to the Steamship Authority and Affordable Housing.