Partners In Proposed Geotube Expansion, Town And SBPF Disagree On Sequence For Project

Eight months into the Conservation Commission hearing process for a notice of intent filed jointly by the Sconset Beach Preservation Fund (SBPF) and the town of Nantucket to significantly expand the existing geotube installation along the 'Sconset Bluff, SBPF has suggested re-ordering the agreed-upon timeline for the project—and the Select Board isn’t happy.

“The original sequence in the [notice of intent] was based on what is best for the town and that is our responsibility,” Select Board member Malcolm MacNab said during Wednesday’s Select Board meeting. “I have not heard anybody tonight give me any information to tell me we should do any different and I am also quite upset by the fact that we are even here tonight doing this.”

SBPF argues that a section of the Bluff dubbed “Reach Three” should be the first to receive new geotubes, as SBPF already has the funding for that portion of the project. “Reach One,” initially slated to go first, is home to fewer homes and contributes less money to SBPF, meaning that outside philanthropic funding will be needed to finance the installation of geotubes along that portion of the Bluff. SBPF believes that starting with Reach Three could help encourage donations to finance Reach One.

“What we don't want is an approved order of conditions that is just a piece of paper,” SBPF representative Meredith Moldenhauer said. “Rather than waiting...we want to be able to get started and show that momentum.”

But to convince the Conservation Commission to make that change, SBPF would need the support of its co-applicant, the town, and sustainability programs manager Vince Murphy contends that Reach One must remain the Town’s priority, as it is the area most at risk from sea-level rise and where erosion has been most severe, threatening Baxter Road.

“This [is] not in the best interests of the Town,” Murphy said of SBPF’s proposed change in sequencing. “From a resilience perspective, and this is a resilience project, and from a town interest perspective, Reach One has to go first.”

Some Select Board members also worried that if Reach Three was constructed first, it would remove the incentive for SBPF to construct Reach One.

“What guarantee do we have that Reach One will ever be done?" MacNab asked. “We have no guarantee that that part of the project will ever be completed.”

SBPF, for its part, is confident it can secure the funding for Reach One—eventually.

“We are confident that we will be able to obtain the funding for Reach One,” Moldenhauer said. “What we are really asking for is the ability to have that momentum…this is a policy question of allowing your partner, the private group that is coming up with the funding, to decide the best way to do that.”

In the end, the Select Board voted 4-0, with Dawn Hill Holdgate abstaining, to not allow the change to the notice of intent, in large part because of the lack of a guarantee.

“I think if this request had come with a proposal on how to obligate SBPF to complete Reach One, it might have had a different hearing tonight,” Select Board chair Brooke Mohr said.

Some members also raised concerns that allowing a change to the notice of intent so late in the process would doom the project at Town Meeting, where voters will ultimately decide on whether the project can move forward.

“We have to be able to get to Town Meeting and convince people this is the right thing to do,” Select Board vice chair Matt Fee said. “I feel like we're just negotiating against ourselves and we're almost guaranteeing it won't happen.”

Even if the Select Board had agreed to the change, there is no guarantee the Conservation Commission would have allowed it. At a meeting Thursday, Commissioners expressed hesitance at the idea of permitting Reach Three to go first, suggesting SBPF might be better off constructing Reach One and Reach Three simultaneously, a possibility Murphy indicated he had previously assented to on behalf of the Town.

Despite initially pushing for Reach One to go first, Moldenhauer moderated her stance at Thursday’s Conservation Commission meeting, saying SBPF was open to constructing the two reaches together.

At Wednesday’s Select Board meeting, the Select Board also heard updates on the proposed emergency access and alternate access plans for Baxter Road, which winds along the portion of the Bluff most affected by erosion and sea level rise. The alternate access plan, which would provide another route to houses along the Bluff, is still in the design phase, with a final design likely this winter. The plan will have to gain Town Meeting approval before construction, which will likely take about two years, can begin. While the hope is to bring the plan before the voters this Spring, town manager Libby Gibson is skeptical it will be ready by then, mostly because it will be difficult to find a funding source. The price tag is estimated at $36.5 million and may be as high as $43.8 million.

“Seeing those numbers…who’s going to pay for that?” Fee asked.

“The current thinking is some sort of betterment arrangement but we really need to do a lot of work on that and, in fact, I'm a little hesitant about the readiness of getting this to the 2025 Annual Town Meeting,” Gibson said, suggesting the ‘Sconset Bluff property owners may foot at least a portion of the bill.

The town’s proposal to allow the assessment of betterment fees on the properties most affected by coastal resilience projects like the alternate access plan could have provided a source of funding, but voters shot it down at Town Meeting last Spring, leaving Gibson and her staff to find another option.