Select Board Adopts Warrant For 2026 Annual Town Meeting

The Select Board approved the warrant for the 2026 Annual Town Meeting last Wednesday, highlighted by major capital expenditures, including roughly $135 million for a new Our Island Home skilled nursing facility.

For the first time since 2021, voters will not be faced with any questions related to short-term rentals, after opting to legalize them across the island by codifying them into the town’s zoning code last fall.

In the absence of short-term rentals and with the warrant featuring an unusually low number of citizen-sponsored articles, the significant capital overrides are likely to garner increased attention from voters wary of more government spending and tax increases. Several of these proposals were defeated last year, including an article seeking funding for the design costs of a new Department of Public Works building and another seeking financial support for town employee housing.

Other overrides include $43 million for a Somerset area sewer expansion that the Select Board initially considered excluding from the warrant, further funding for LORAN barracks repairs in 'Sconset, and a public school athletic facilities upgrade that has become a source of controversy in recent months as tensions spike over whether the proposed playing field included in the plan should be natural grass or artificial turf.

The warrant for the May 4, 2026, Annual Town Meeting also includes a proposal for an offshore wind stabilization fund, a change to the town’s noise bylaw, and an effort to change the rules governing the demolition of historic structures on-island. A breakdown of the most high-profile articles is included below.

Article 9: General Fund Operating Budget

The general fund operating budget has swelled to $170 million in recent years. Notably, this year’s budget currently excludes a request for a funding increase from the Nantucket Public Schools and the Nantucket Community School, though that could change before voters weigh in.

Article 11: Our Island Home

This article, which seeks around $135 million for a new Our Island Home facility at Sherburne Commons, was defeated at last year’s Town Meeting. A two-thirds majority was needed for it to pass, but only a simple majority voted in favor. The article also needs to win a majority of the vote at the ballot box, which it did last year. After the Town Meeting defeat, the Select Board considered excluding the override request from the warrant, but ultimately opted to include it after a meeting in which nearly every member of the public in attendance expressed their support for the project.

The article faces an uphill battle to pass. The vote went against the proposal last year, and the town’s own survey, which seemed slanted in favor of relocation, showed support still shy of the two-thirds needed. Members of the Finance Committee, which ultimately opposed last year’s nearly identical plan, have already expressed skepticism again, and it is possible that the cost comes back even higher than the $135 million Town Meeting previously rejected.

If the article is able to garner two-thirds support, it may be because voters recognize that this is the last chance for Nantucket to remain in the skilled nursing home business. Select Board members and community advocates have stressed that if this article fails, it is tantamount to a vote to eventually close Our Island Home, leaving no options on Nantucket for seniors in need of skilled nursing care. There is almost no chance that a private company will choose to run a facility on Nantucket, meaning that the closure of Our Island Home would force seniors off-island, potentially at great financial and emotional cost to them and their families.

Article 12: School Athletic Facilities Improvements

The vast majority of the Nantucket Public Schools’ $23 million athletic facilities improvement plan is relatively uncontroversial. But the proposal to replace the football field at Vito Capizzo Stadium with artificial turf has drawn intense pushback.

First, when the School Committee endorsed a proposal for a natural grass field, the island’s athletic community came out in force to advocate for switching to turf. The School Committee members did so, voting 4-1 to advance a plan for a turf field. Then, island residents concerned about the potential impacts of the materials in the field on Nantucket’s sole-source aquifer argued that the school system should revert to its original plan, and the Board of Health is now considering an islandwide ban on turf. Similar arguments sank a previous proposal for a turf field in 2022.

At the heart of the issue lies a debate over the safety of the materials in the field. School officials contend that the turf field will be free from cancerous PFAS chemicals and will not pose a threat to islanders. Anti-PFAS activists respond that the companies behind artificial turf materials have been known to lie about the safety of their products, and that the testing used to determine that turf is PFAS-free is not sophisticated enough to detect all PFAS.

To pass, the renovation needs two-thirds support.

Article 13: Town Employee Housing

Another article that received majority support last year but not the two-thirds needed to pass, Article 13 is an override request for the design and construction of town employee housing on Waitt Drive. The town hopes that, a year later, enough voters will have changed their mind on the project to allow its passage. Last year's article would have allocated $14 million for the project. The warrant for the 2026 Annual Town Meeting does not yet include an updated pricetag.

Article 14: LORAN Barracks Repairs

Amid multiple reports of continued poor conditions at the LORAN barracks, used as dormitory housing for seasonal community service officers, the town is seeking further funding for the next phase of repairs. Voters previously approved $4.5 million in funding in 2022.

Article 15: Somerset Sewer Extension

The Select Board, concerned about asking Town Meeting for too much money, went back and forth on whether to include this article on the warrant. But ultimately, after a sewer masterplan workshop earlier this month, they opted to let the voters decide, despite Select Board member Matt Fee expressing some misgivings. The Select Board is concerned voters may “pick and choose” which funding overrides to support, leaving some behind. For now, though, the $43.3 million sewer expansion, which would bring sewer to more than 900 properties in the Somerset area, remains on the warrant.

Article 16: Tom Nevers Park Debris Removal

As the first phase of debris cleanup at the abandoned Navy base in Tom Nevers begins after a lengthy delay, the town is seeking another $8 million for phase two, which will involve reconstructing the multi-use Tom Nevers playing court and will continue debris removal at the site.

Article 17: Department of Public Works Facility Design

Voters struck down design funding for a new DPW building by a majority vote last year, but it’s back on the warrant again, and will need a major reversal of fortune to secure the two-thirds support it needs to pass.

Article 36: Offshore Wind Stabilization Fund

ACK for Whales' founding director Val Oliver is sponsoring a citizen warrant article that would require all future money brought in from offshore wind projects to be funneled into a dedicated stabilization fund. That fund would then significantly restrict the ways the money could be used, limiting the town’s ability to support nonprofits and local businesses.

Instead, the money would have to be used to pay for damages caused by offshore wind farms and for litigation against them. It could also be used to provide information about “the harm to Nantucket and its inhabitants arising from offshore wind farms,” or to “seek termination and removal of existing offshore wind farms affecting Nantucket,” and “oppose and prevent the permitting, approval, installation and operation of offshore wind farms affecting Nantucket.”

Article 37: Municipal Waste and Hazardous Material Incineration

Island resident Clifford Williams has long advocated for waste incineration on Nantucket, even though it is banned by state law. He is trying again this year.

Article 41: Rear Lot Subdivisions

The Planning Board is seeking the ability to ask homeowners for year-round deed restrictions in return for allowing rear lot subdivisions.

Article 43: Apartment Buildings

This article would allow the Planning Board to grant apartment buildings additional bedrooms by special permit if the whole building is eligible for inclusion on the subsidized housing inventory list.

Article 44: Attainable Housing

The state’s new seasonal communities law changes the maximum allowed income threshold for attainable housing. This law would bump the threshold on Nantucket from 240 percent of area median income to 250 percent.

Article 63: Pre-Existing Non-Conforming Use, Structures and Lots

Nantucket Land and Water Council executive director Emily Molden is sponsoring this article, which was also on the warrant last spring. A majority of voters supported it last time, but not the two-thirds it needs to pass. It would tighten a zoning exemption for lots with pre-existing non-conforming structures, which allows development outside of what is usually permitted by Nantucket’s zoning code.

Article 68: Noise

Initially drafted by the ‘Sconset Civic Association, this revision to Nantucket’s noise bylaw would standardize and simplify the island’s regulations on when mechanically powered tools can be used outdoors. The new regulations are generally more restrictive than those that exist now, and have drawn some pushback from contractors and landscapers.

But the most notable impact of the proposed change might be how much it simplifies the regulatory landscape. Right now, there are ten different curfews for construction and landscaping activities, depending on the time of the year, day of the week, type of noise, and zoning district. The revision would cut that to two or three, depending on whether the final motion allows for the curfew to change during daylight savings time.

Proponents contend the proposal offers much-needed clarity and would permit better enforcement of the rules. Opponents counter that it eats into the valuable time contractors and landscapers have to do their work.

The noise bylaws apply to landscaping and construction noise only.

Article 71: Stormwater Management

The town is looking to create a new “stormwater utility,” tasked with managing Nantucket’s stormwater. The utility will have the ability to collect fees, issue permits, and, if necessary, assess penalties for regulatory violations. Opponents worry it will be one more regulatory hurdle developers have to clear to build on island. Supporters counter that it will help protect Nantucket from the dangers of sea-level rise and provide a funding source for much-needed stormwater infrastructure. While the article contained in the warrant is lengthy, it is mostly comprised of definitions and background information, and the details will have to be worked out after the vote.

Article 72: Historic Structure Demolitions

After a controversial decision in which the Historic District Commission voted 3-2 to allow the demolition of the historic Nantucket Electric Company building on New Whale Street, preservation carpenter Hollis Webb submitted a citizen’s warrant article to raise the threshold for demolishing historic structures. Under the new bylaw, a two-thirds majority of the Historic District Commission would have to back any demolition, effectively requiring a 4-1 vote instead of a 3-2 vote. That would have been enough to save the Nantucket Electric Company building from demolition last fall, though the building may have been far enough beyond repair that it would have continued to slowly disintegrate on the waterfront for the foreseeable future.

Article 73: Baxter Road Erosion Control

Another article the Select Board was somewhat hesitant to include, the Baxter Road erosion control project was also initially on last year’s warrant, but was tabled because of significant problems facing the project. Some of those problems have yet to be resolved.

The state hasn’t finished its environmental review of the controversial geotube expansion. A legal challenge remains pending. Despite years of pressure from the Conservation Commission, the Sconset Beach Preservation Fund still hasn’t supplied the necessary sand for the existing geotubes. They claim that sand is coming soon, but not everyone is so sure.

“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.”

Getting support from the voters could prove difficult.

Articles 74 and 75: Competing NP&EDC Reform Proposals

After years of delays, the Nantucket Planning and Economic Development Commission is finally ready to put a proposal for self-reform before the voters. But after negotiations with critic Hillary Hedges Rayport, who now sits on the NP&EDC because of her election to the Planning Board, collapsed, voters will have two options to choose from, not one. We’ve written about the two articles, and the backstory of the debate, extensively.

Read the full Annual Town Meeting warrant, as adopted by the Select Board, by clicking here.