Land Bank, Don't Lose Sight Of Founding Mission

To the editor: Dear Members of the Nantucket Land Bank, I found the board’s letter to the editor (last week) deeply troubling. Please don’t lose sight of the Land Bank’s founding mission: “Conservation, recreation, and agriculture for the benefit of the public in perpetuity.”

One of Nantucket’s most valued qualities is the open space and that it is not an overbuilt, overpolluted city. That’s thanks in part to the foresight of past generations who created and supported the Land Bank.

There are multiple Town entities focused on affordable housing, including a dedicated Housing Department with boards, staff, a budget, and taxpayer funding. Let them do their jobs.

It’s long been acknowledged that Nantucket cannot build its way out of the housing crisis. Our finite resources are already strained: PFAS contamination in our sole-source aquifer, wells shutting down, water pressure drops, major electrical failures during last year’s Stroll, sewer capacity and expansion trouble, gridlocked roads, staffing shortages for emergency responders and teachers, wind turbine debris washing ashore, and long dump lines—sometimes while it’s on fire.

The Land Bank’s role is more vital than ever: to protect what remains, not drive us further into overdevelopment. To make changes to your charter will need town meeting vote and an act of the legislature. Which may bring consequences that you may not foresee.

Some need only look in the mirror to see the cause. Nantucket’s unchecked growth and real estate greed created this industrialized community and the housing crisis it spawned. It is not the job of a conservation agency to fix that.

A tool is meant to solve a problem. If it helps one group but harms another, it’s not a tool—it’s a weapon.

Sincerely,

Meghan Perry