Town Submits $37 Million Plan For Alternative Access To Baxter Road
JohnCarl McGrady •
After years of planning and meetings, a proposal to provide alternative access to the homes along Baxter Road in ‘Sconset has finally been submitted to the Conservation Commission this week - though it will almost certainly be some time before there is any chance of approval from the Commission.
A number of critical details, including how the project will be funded, remain unclear. The price tag for the alternative access project is estimated to be $37 million, but could end up costing over $45 million. It will also need approval from a bevy of state and local government bodies before any work can begin.
As the ‘Sconset Bluff has continued to erode, threatening Baxter Road and the homes perched along the edge, the town, in partnership with its consulting firm Arcadis, has pursued the alternative access project in an effort to ensure safe access and continued services.
The first phase of the project, before the Conservation Commission now, would involve laying 4,330 feet of iron water mains, 4,860 feet of sanitary sewer, and a number of manholes, connections, and fittings. It also involves the relocation of a significant chunk of road away from the bluff to the other side of the affected houses, which will require the installation of thousands of feet of asphalt and gravel road.
As it stands, the source of the potentially more than $45 million needed to complete the project is uncertain. The town attempted to create coastal resilience betterment districts, which would have allowed the assessment of special taxes on the homeowners impacted by the coastal resilience projects, but that effort failed at Annual Town Meeting in 2024, which, for now, complicates a betterments approach. Another option would be to seek funding from the broader voter base, though voters who will see no benefit from the project might balk at the substantial price tag.
The Conservation Commission, of course, isn’t ruling on the cost. It’s ruling on the environmental impacts, which could include the disruption of tens of thousands of feet of buffer zones of priority habitat for rare wildlife.
But even if the Commission wanted to approve the project, which is unlikely at such an early stage, it’s not certain they have the legal authority to do so. The project will require the Town to do work on the private property of several area homeowners, and at least one is opposed.
“It is black letter law that a conservation commission cannot act on a Notice of Intent unless it has the permission of the owner of the land where work is proposed,” attorney Dan Bailey wrote on behalf of Dorothy and David Bailey, who own 100 Baxter Road. “The Town of Nantucket asked the Baileys for permission to submit the Notice of Intent. The Baileys declined to give their approval…under these circumstances the Commission does not have jurisdiction or authority to consider the NOI. The NOI should be rejected as incomplete for failure to include authorization from all property owners.”
If the town cannot get every property owner to voluntarily agree to the work needed for the project, it may have to resort to eminent domain takings, a possibility raised in its notice of intent to the Conservation Commission. At the moment, the town’s own documentation suggests that three property owners have not given their permission, and another six have yet to reply.
A hearing on the plan is scheduled for Thursday before the Conservation Commission, if it isn’t continued.
