Select Board Approves 25-Year Lease Of Town Property To NRTA For New Maintenance Garage

The Select Board has approved a lease with the Nantucket Regional Transit Authority (NRTA) for town-owned property on Industry Road, where the NRTA plans to build a new maintenance garage.

The garage is currently located on a parcel of land owned by the Nantucket Memorial Airport at 35 Bunker Road. The airport told NRTA it won’t renew its lease when it expires in 2028, forcing the relocation.

The town’s lease to the NRTA includes eight town-owned vacant lots totaling approximately 126,329 square feet, or approximately 2.9 acres.

When the garage was discussed previously, the airport said that it could not simply renew the lease, and that Massachusetts law requires requests for proposals should it choose to continue leasing the land. Airport representatives also said that it needs the land to house snow removal equipment and to support heavy machinery maintenance.

The NRTA will pay the town $2,500 a month for the lease, which is set to last 25 years. That will escalate each year at a 2 to 2.5 percent rate. The NRTA will also pay $50,000 a year for capital improvements on the Industry Road property, which encompasses eight lots totaling just under three acres and is currently undeveloped. When the NRTA’s capital funding runs out, the lease cost will increase $50,000 per year.

The NRTA is responsible for construction, which will include an electric vehicle charging station, a municipal vehicle washdown bay, a bay for commercial vehicle inspections, a fueling station, and—notably—an impound lot for towed vehicles.

Historically, Nantucket has struggled to tow vehicles anywhere, given the lack of an impound lot. If the new NRTA developments do include an impound lot, it could change how parking regulations are enforced downtown and at other municipal parking lots.

“What I thought was great about this contract, in addition to [NRTA administrator Gary Roberts] having a more permanent location, is that they included a potential fueling station, an electric charging station, potentially an impound lot, and a wash bay,” Select Board member Jill Vieth said. “Those are things that we’ve been talking about all summer, and it seems like these are things that we can address now.”