Voters Again Endorse Citizen Petition To Reform The Nantucket Planning & Economic Development Commission

A citizen petition sponsored by Hillary Hedges Rayport to make a series of reforms to the Nantucket Planning & Economic Development Commission (NP&EDC) was approved by voters by a wide margin in the waning moments of Tuesday’s Special Town Meeting.

Rayport’s petition, which was slightly revised from the one she sponsored at the 2023 Annual Town Meeting that passed by one vote, would add five directly elected seats to the NP&EDC, impose term limits, and include representation from the Nantucket Land Bank and Historical Commission.

Rayport has been critical of what she has described as the NP&EDC’s lack of long-range planning for several years and said after Tuesday’s Special Town Meeting that the debates surrounding short-term rentals and rezoning for housing projects on Town Meeting floor were evidence demonstrating the absence of such planning initiatives.

“It really could not be more definitive,” Rayport told the Current on Thursday following the vote. “I think it means people are much more aware than they have been before about what the commission is supposed to be doing and hasn’t been doing. They’re starting to question and come around to the idea of these changes and that directly elected folks, including those on the Historical Commission and Land Bank, are essential to make progress on Nantucket’s problems.”

Despite opposition from the current members of the NP&EDC, along with Finance Committee chair Denice Kronau and Planning Director Leslie Snell, island voters approved Article 16 on a vote of 286 - 114. The petition now heads to the State House in Boston, where it must make it through the committee process and then be approved by the legislature and Governor Maura Healey before it can take effect.

Rayport, Giletti, and others who spoke out in favor of the article pointed out that Nantucket’s Master Plan is now 15 years old and in need of an update, a draft of which has been promised by members of the NP&EDC but has not yet materialized.

“Nantucket used to be a leader in planning, but we’ve fallen behind, and we have real long-term problems to address,” article supporter Ted Giletti said on Town Meeting floor. “Article 16 provides a more accountable planning commission which will be more effective in planning for Nantucket’s future and more inclusive of different voices.”

Rayport and the NP&EDC spent most of the summer attempting to reach a compromise on proposed changes to the commission to bring forward to Town Meeting, but those talks ended in late August without an agreement.

Snell and the members of the NP&EDC who spoke on Tuesday urged voters to give them more time to craft their own proposed reforms to bring to Town Meeting.

“Allow the commission time to finish their work to propose changes to this important enabling legislation,” Snell said. “The future role and composition of the commission, one of 13 regional planning agencies in the Commonwealth, should be well thought out and not rushed. We disagree with (Rayport’s) assessment and prefer a process that will attract the greatest number of applicants who may be more representative of the overall community profile. The commission does see the value of changing the appointing authority of the at-large seats, and we propose to ask the County Commission to assume that role.”

Snell and NP&EDC disputed the suggestion that the NP&EDC had dropped the ball with respect to long-range planning.

“That’s a great sound bite and an easy accusation to make, but it simply isn’t true,” Snell said. “The commission has no regulatory power - none - and even if it did, there are local agencies responsible for addressing local issues.”

The NP&EDC’s enabling legislation states that it was created “in order to plan for the orderly and coordinated development and protection of the physical, social, and economic resources of the Island of Nantucket.”

NP&EDC chair Nat Lowell said the commission started discussing changes to its makeup in 2021 but needed more time to finalize its recommendations.

“It takes time to fix all this stuff - we have potholes that have been around longer than we’ve been working on this,” Lowell said. “Elected members will not make it more diverse. It’s going to make it less…Don’t be fooled. Vote this down, please. We’ll be back with something a lot better.”

But after 30 minutes of discussion, voters gave a strong endorsement to Article 16, sending the citizen petition to reform the NP&EDC to the state legislature for the second year in a row.

“I thought people, regular citizens, stood up to ask for more planning and more direction,” Rayport said. “The whole tenor of the meeting up to the vote on Article 16 was ‘Exhibit A’ of what happens when you don’t have a vision for the future and a coordinated, effective planning function. That was part of why people stayed to vote on this. Nantucket used to be a leader in planning, and we’re just not doing it anymore, we’re just letting the market decide what we’re going to be.”

Read more about the changes Rayport's article would bring at this link.