New Board of Health Members Drop Restrictions On Proposed Woodland Drive Housing Project

The Board of Health lifted three restrictions it had previously placed on a proposed housing development on Woodland Drive on Thursday, with all three of the Board’s members who were not present for the initial decision voting to overturn it. The vote could be a sign of how the new Board, which has only one member who has served for longer than a month, will treat septic regulations going forward.

The Board of Health approved septic systems for the complex last February after more than eight months of tense debate that came to represent its cautious approach to water quality and development. The approval required that the development be used for elder housing, capped the buildout at 12 dwelling units, and mandated that any major site plan revisions be returned to the Board for further review. All three restrictions were lifted on Thursday.

“It seems like a math equation to me,” Board of Health member Ernie Strang said. “I think zoning and the Planning Board really get to decide what this thing looks like and how it gets diced up. My opinion is, I don’t think it’s for us to decide.”

The housing development required a special waiver to exceed a bedroom cap on homes that use a septic system, which the Board of Health granted conditionally. Three of the conditions it imposed have now been removed, with new members of the Board of Health arguing that they went beyond the scope of what the Board of Health should consider when reviewing an application.

“In terms of age restriction on any type of building, I don’t feel that’s our purview,” Board of Health member Kate Garrette said. “I don’t think that’s up to this Board to decide.”

Kerry McKenna, the lone member of the Board who voted on the initial restrictions and the lone dissenter on the Board’s reversal, argued that special variances shouldn’t be granted without clear plans, raising concerns about how often the design for the property at 13 and 13A Woodland Drive has changed.

“There’s a trust problem here, with this particular group,” McKenna said. “There’s another plan that was running in the background the whole time, and you had no intention of doing [the plan the Board of Health approved] at all. And we gave variances based upon what we had in front of us, and what we have in front of us is always changing.”

But Bob DeCosta, the Select Board’s representative to the Board of Health, responded that plans were broadly outside the purview of the Board of Health and shouldn’t be considered or required to approve variances.

“He’s got to go to the Planning Board to get buildings approved. We’re not the Planning Board. We approve how many bedrooms he can put in,” DeCosta said. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m going to base my decisions on what is allowed on that lot.”

McKenna asked if the Board of Health was “going to start approving variances without plans,” to which DeCosta replied, “yeah.”

“I’m here to regulate Board of Health regulations,” DeCosta said. “The math is the math.”

Site design engineer Dave Mulloy also said that some of the original conditions were unusual for the Board of Health.

“That's not something that, in my experience, you've required in other applications, that we continually come back for further review,” Mulloy said. “We’re getting into zoning and property line mergers, which are beyond the regulations that we’re here to talk about with the septic systems.”

The decision could signal the beginning of a second major shift in how the Board of Health approaches requests for additional bedrooms on land that relies on a septic system. In the past, the Board routinely granted variances when homeowners offered to switch from traditional septic systems to innovative/alternative systems that dramatically reduce pollutant contamination in nearby groundwater. The logic was that, even with additional bedrooms, the innovative/alternative septic systems would reduce environmental contamination and improve public health.

But in the last year, the Board had grown much more cautious about such requests, ultimately approving a change to its regulations that largely blocks such variances in two areas of the island, including one that covers Woodland Drive. Now, homes in these areas—the wellhead protection district and Hummock Pond watershed—are required to switch to an innovative/alternative system without any additional bedrooms if their existing system fails, if any new construction or structural alterations are proposed, or if the property is transferred from one owner to another.

The conditions initially imposed on the approval of the Woodland Drive housing development are perhaps the best example of that more cautious approach.

“We had discussions, we went through eight meetings, we came to that, and now you’re saying it doesn’t really matter, we can put in whatever we want,” McKenna said. “Given the turnout we had at the beginning, concern from neighbors, density is a concern.”

Board members did not suggest revisiting the change to the regulations on Thursday, but they were more lenient with the Woodland Drive application, which was submitted before the change, and suggested that issues such as land use may no longer influence Board of Health decisions as much as they have in the last year.

The Select Board removed Ann Smith and Meridith Lepore from the Board of Health during their annual committee appointments last month, replacing them with Garrette and Strange. Former Board of Health member Jim Cooper then resigned in protest. Discussion about the shakeup has largely focused on a controversial artificial turf field proposed for installation at Vito Capizzo Stadium, behind the Nantucket High School. Smith and Lepore were both proponents of restricting or blocking the field, while Garrette and Strange support it. Several Select Board members had voiced sharp criticism of the Board of Health's handling of the debate over the field.

But the Board of Health also clashed with other town bodies on the septic regulation change, which initially drew pushback from the Housing Department, Planning Board, and Select Board for restricting affordable housing. Ultimately, guided in large part by McKenna, who was appointed as interim chair for a single meeting on Thursday as the Board of Health waits for its final new member to be chosen by the Select Board, the Board of Health and the Housing Department reached a compromise on the regulations that allows for variance requests related to affordable, attainable, and year-round housing.

Still, septic regulations did play a role in the Select Board’s decision to oust Smith and Lepore. Select Board chair Dawn Hill told the Current that she voted for Strang in part because of his understanding of septic systems.

Discussions on the artificial turf field are now at least temporarily on hold before the Board of Health. The Nantucket Public Schools, which proposed the field, is currently negotiating with the Nantucket Land and Water Council, a local environmental nonprofit, regarding potential conditions for its installation. Deputy health and human services director Jerico Mele told the Board of Health Thursday that the two parties have reached an agreement on a testing regime after the Nantucket Land and Water Council dropped demands related to testing an adhesive material that had been the final major point of contention, but negotiations continue on issues including monitoring the field.

In the meantime, septic systems are dominating the Board of Health’s time.

Mulloy had previously accepted the three conditions that the Board of Health lifted Thursday on behalf of owner and developer Stephen Maury, but, perhaps sensing a change in how the Board might rule, he returned to the Board Thursday to request their removal.

In the end, the Planning Board, which previously indicated support for a sketch concept of the elder housing development, may end up reinstituting some of the conditions the Board of Health lifted. The plan was continued at last Monday’s Planning Board meeting without being heard.

The plan does seem to have changed again since the Planning Board’s initial review, which was part of McKenna’s concern on Thursday. McKenna was worried the elder housing concept might be abandoned entirely. He attempted to convince the Board of Health to continue the discussion to their next meeting, but was unsuccessful.

Maury has been trying to develop the properties for years without success. At the 2024 Special Town Meeting, Maury pushed a proposal that would have seen the properties turned into 40 attainable housing units, restricted to year-round occupancy, and offered first to essential workers.

But the Select Board, Finance Committee, Nantucket Planning and Economic Development Commission, and Planning Board all objected, raising concerns about the increased density, and Maury was unable to secure the votes necessary to rezone the property to allow for the development. Neighbors also raised concerns about traffic and the impact on the area’s infrastructure.

Another, less expansive proposal failed at the 2025 Annual Town Meeting.

Woodland Drive is located off Skyline Drive and backs up to the Richmond Great Point subdivision off Old South Road. Thirteen and 13A Woodland Drive were sold to Maury for $3 million in May 2024 by the estate of Walter Glowacki to Woodland Limited Partnership. The two properties total 4.8 acres.