Tucker Holland Withdraws From Land Bank Race

Former Nantucket housing director Tucker Holland has withdrawn his name from the Land Bank Commission race roughly one month ahead of the Town Election on May 20^th.

Holland, who was vying for the lone seat up for grabs against incumbent Mark Donato, said that he withdrew his name on April 17^th and cited three reasons for his decision. The first was the Land Bank beginning to stream their meetings on Zoom, which he says is a step in the right direction towards bringing the public voice into the Land Bank’s plans.

“I have never been interested in an all-out ‘campaign,’" Holland said. “I have always been interested in a conversation. I think it is very important to bring the public voice more into the Land Bank’s plans for the future than simply through the annual election of a commissioner. That the Land Bank has now taken the step of meetings on Zoom is a step in that direction.”

The second reason was that he had a productive conversation with former commission chair and current treasurer Neil Paterson, which he said alleviated some of the concerns or issues that led him to run in the first place.

“I met with Neil Paterson and we had a very good conversation,” Holland said. “I respect Neil. I shared that fundamentally I am a conservationist, I am happiest in the woods and wilds, and I also care about year-round housing. Housing has always been about people and community for me much more than buildings. It is possible to hold both concern for conservation and concern for people in equal regard. They are not mutually exclusive. That is why I am a big proponent of repurposing existing inventory for year-round use in perpetuity. During our good discussion, Neil said something that caught my attention — that my candidacy is viewed as a referendum on the Land Bank. That was never my intent. The Land Bank has done an extraordinary amount of good and has been visionary in its first 40 years. It is, for me, about what will it do in the next 40 years. I want it to be just as visionary. (Executive Director) Rachael Freeman brought this topic up at the Master Plan visioning workshop, which I appreciated.”

The third reason was Freeman’s motivation to move the Land Bank to think more broadly about their role in the community and how they can help solve pressing community issues.

“Neil gave Rachael credit for moving the Land Bank to start to think more broadly about their role in the community with respect to how and where the Land Bank can aid in helping solve pressing community issues while being true to its conservation and recreation heritage,” Holland said. “I applaud that. Now that the Land Bank seems to be embracing, to an extent anyway, what my candidacy was intended to promote, I want to support Rachael and the Commission in continuing to move in that direction, rather than have my interest in serving be confused for some kind of referendum.”