Planning Board Votes Down Dr. Monto's Medical Practice In Naushop

Weeks after a lengthy public hearing in which numerous Naushop residents spoke out against local orthopedic surgeon Rocco Monto’s proposed office in their neighborhood on Goldfinch Drive, the Planning Board voted unanimously to deny his application for the medical practice location.

Monto faced opposition on all fronts during the August hearing. Opponents claimed his practice would significantly increase traffic, create dangerous conditions for children, and dramatically alter the character of what is now a quiet residential neighborhood. But ultimately, it was parking that sank the application.

Zoning regulations require Monto to have six 20-foot parking spaces, but no matter what they tried, his team couldn’t fit six parking spaces longer than 17 feet on the property. His attorney, Arthur Reade, tried to convince the Planning Board that 17 feet was enough.

“First of all, most vehicles are shorter than that, and to the extent that there might be a foot or two of overlap of the vehicles into the way, I don't think that's going to seriously impact anyone's use,” Reade said.

But especially since Monto wasn’t requesting special relief for parking, the Planning Board voted him down.

“Nothing has been provided, there is no plan that has been provided that is conforming with parking, so I don't see how we can approve this,” Planning Board member Hillary Hedges Rayport said.

The Planning Board also expressed concern over the lack of dialogue between Monto and the neighbors since the last Planning Board meeting. Chair Dave Iverson had urged them to hash out a compromise, but ultimately, that conversation never happened.

“In the light of the fact that we weren't able to lay out the parking spaces so that they would be technically compliant, we didn't feel, in the light of the nature of the opposition and basically what I was being told by counsel for the homeowners’ association, that it would be very productive to have a conversation with them,” Reade said. ”We were quite sure they were going to be in opposition in any event.”

That didn’t sit well with the homeowners' association.

“We've been sitting here with our hands tied for the past month waiting for something that never came,” Naushop Homeowners’ Association president Scott Wilson said of the talks. “You can't possibly approve this thing tonight.”

It also didn’t sit well with the Planning Board.

“I could see my way to an approval, but to be honest with you, with no discussion, no parking plan, I'm looking at it in a different way,” Iverson said.

Monto has been a surgeon at the Nantucket Cottage Hospital for over 20 years, and has lived on Nantucket for the last 12. He was targeting the property on Goldfinch, in an area zoned for commercial use, as a possible new home for his practice. Despite that plan falling through, Monto told the Current he was confident he would find an alternative location in the near future.

It’s unclear what the property owners will do next. They can always turn around and rent the property to another, possibly more intensive office that doesn’t require the special permit that Monto’s practice needed as a medical office. Parking, however, is likely to remain a problem.