Select Board Favors Paid Parking, Possible Impound Lot, At 2 Fairgrounds Road Lot

The Select Board has indicated support for implementing paid parking in the public lot at 2 Fairgrounds Road to address what town staff have characterized as frequent misuse of the town-owned property.

“I think we're at the point where the majority of the vehicles in that parking lot overnight are off-island contractors that are putting their vehicles there, and we should start charging them, and charging them realistically what they should be paying,” Select Board member Bob DeCosta said. “$14 a night is nothing. If you park in Hyannis and want to come over here for the night, it's $20 or $25, and we should be doing the same thing.”

How much the town will charge, what uses of the lot will require payment, and how these rules will be enforced are yet to be determined.

The Select Board also instructed town staff to explore the possibility of an impound lot for towed vehicles on the property. Several Select Board members expressed support for the idea, but Select Board member Jill Vieth raised concerns about potential costs.

The municipal lot behind the police station has become one of the town’s busiest, but limited infrastructure and the town’s ongoing struggles with enforcement have contributed to increasing rates of long-term parking, abandoned vehicles, and other violations at the lot.

“These issues have made the lot increasingly difficult to manage and have reduced the availability of parking for its intended users,” a memo from town staff reads in part. “With the Town also planning future improvements to the site, including drainage upgrades and the addition of a new modular office building, this is an appropriate time to consider the long-term future of the parking lot.”

The memo says that while the police patrol the lot regularly, they have not been able to curtail violations. In the 2026 fiscal year, which ended July 1st, the town recorded 383 parking violations and 58 calls related to abandoned cars. The memo also raises concerns about “commercial and business-related vehicle activity.”

The discussion at Wednesday’s Select Board meeting expanded into a broader conversation about the parking difficulties facing Nantucket, which may be exacerbated this year by the temporary absence of the valet parking lot at the old Nantucket Electric Company building on New Whale Street.

“We’ve got to figure out, how can you operate Nantucket in a way where we have sidewalks and people can walk,” Select Board member Matt Fee said. “How do set up a system where people can get around without having to drive?”

In addition to paid parking, town staff had presented an option to construct an above-ground or below-ground parking garage on the lot, but the Select Board did not seem interested.

“An underground parking garage there, it's not in my book. We have so many other projects, and that number is ludicrous. $21 million? You know what concrete costs on Nantucket? It's going to be $41 million,” DeCosta said. “The two-story structure, I don't have a problem with that, but I bet the HDC will, so I don't see how you're ever going to get a second level there without boxing it in and shingling it, so I don't think those two things are on the table.”

Fee agreed.

“Until we know what we're doing out here, I don't support spending millions and millions of dollars to park cars,” Fee said. “I think this land is too valuable, and we're going to need it for town employee buildings and other uses—housing—so I would take those right off the table.”

Select Board chair Dawn Hill suggested that it would be worthwhile to study the possibility of a parking garage.

“I think that we should evaluate doing a parking structure here, because I think it's going to be necessary going forward, but in the short-term, I think we should start charging for parking,” Hill said.

The Select Board may revisit the topic during its upcoming review of large capital projects.