State Approves Surfside Crossing Development As Town Announces New Legal Challenge

The state Housing Appeals Committee (HAC) has issued a final ruling in favor of the proposed 156-unit housing development known as Surfside Crossing, but the town has announced it will appeal the ruling to the Superior Court.

The embattled project, first proposed in 2018, has spent the better part of eight years at the center of a protracted legal fight between opponents and developers Jamie Feeley and Josh Posner.

“Homeownership builds generational wealth. It creates stability. It gives people a stake in the community,” Josh Posner said in a statement provided to the Current. "If we are not collectively as a town, creating appealing ownership opportunities for working families, we need to ask why. What's the alternative being offered? More studies and task forces while another generation is displaced?”

While Feeley stated that the HAC approval meant it was time to “get back to work,” the town’s appeal sets up another challenge for Surfside Crossing’s developers.

“At the request of the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Select Board has unanimously authorized an appeal of the [HAC decision],” the town wrote in a statement last week. “This is a formal legal action that supports the ZBA’s unanimous denial of the project.”

The details of the appeal are not yet known, but it represents a marked change of course for the town, which had announced a “collaborative agreement” with the Surfside Crossing developers in 2023, when it dropped its previous appeal of the project.

The new challenge by the town marks the latest legal action to block the development, which was proposed under a special state statute known as Chapter 40B that allows developers to bypass local zoning regulations and increase density if at least 20 to 25 percent of the new units have long-term affordability restrictions.

So far, the efforts of Surfside Crossing’s primary opponents - including Nantucket Tipping Point and the Nantucket Land & Water Council - have not been sufficient to halt the project entirely, though they have secured years of delays. Their most notable victory came before the Superior Court in 2024, when a judge vacated a previous HAC decision. The case will now return to the Superior Court.

The HAC issued its most recent proposed decision in favor of Surfside Crossing last month, and the final decision follows it closely.

“The Housing Appeals Committee has reviewed the concerns of the Board and the opponents in detail, and concludes that the denial of a permit to this well designed development, which will address critical housing needs in Nantucket, was not based on substantial local needs that outweigh the regional need for affordable housing, that is, that the development will not compromise the health, safety, or other interests of nearby residents, of the occupants of the housing, or of the Town generally,” the decision reads.

The HAC’s decision is the result of an appeal of a decision from the local Zoning Board of Appeals, which voted unanimously against the project last April. That ruling was itself a remand after the Superior Court vacated the HAC’s first decision, which in turn reversed an original denial from the ZBA.

Even before it was finalized, the HAC’s decision drew sharp pushback from Nantucket Tipping Point, a local group opposed to the development.

"The proposed HAC decision by Presiding Officer Warner Lohe comes as no surprise, particularly given that he is the same presiding officer whose previous HAC decision regarding Surfside Crossing was decisively overturned by the Superior Court after Nantucket Tipping Point - together with our long-time partners at the Nantucket Land Council - appealed the ruling," said Tipping Point members Will Willauer and Meghan Perry in a statement. "In that case, the Superior Court found the HAC’s decision, led by the same hearing officer, to be arbitrary, unreasonable, and inconsistent. Many—if not all—of the serious questions raised by Nantucket Tipping Point remain unanswered. Given this lack of accountability and clarity, it is difficult to see how a future appeal before the Superior Court would lead to a different outcome for this development or this HAC proposed decision."

Posner and Feeley have long maintained that the development is a key part of Nantucket’s fight against housing insecurity.

“We're happy to move past this hurdle and get back to work,” Feeley said. "We've rigorously invested our time, resources, and energy — all at risk — to create pathways to ownership for the teachers, nurses, tradespeople, and families who keep this island functional.”

Their opponents view the project as a clear example of overdevelopment that will tax Nantucket’s resources and infrastructure beyond the breaking point. After the project was first proposed, Nantucket entered so-called “safe harbor” from 40B developments by creating sufficient affordable housing of its own, meaning that no similar projects can be proposed.

Surfside Crossing’s 156 condominium units would be contained within 18 three-story buildings off South Shore Road that were cleared in August 2023. 39 of the units would be required to be deed-restricted to residents earning at or below 80 percent of Nantucket’s area median income, while the other 117 units would be sold at market rate, priced between $500,000 and $1.5 million.