Land Bank Says It's Time To Address Nantucket's Affordable Housing Crisis

To the editor: This past month, N Magazine ran an article by Brian Bushard titled “Is It Time for the Land Bank to Address the Affordable Housing Crisis?”.

We, the five elected Land Bank Commissioners, resoundingly and unanimously say “YES!”. But the question goes well beyond just our need to address the housing crisis.

As Mr. Bushard points out, “Nantucket would not be what it is without the Land Bank…In its 42 years, it has succeeded beyond all expectations.”

How do we harness the amazing success of our Land Bank to meet today’s challenges without destroying the very essence of what has served our Island so well?

The island is facing significant challenges; a lack of year-round workforce housing, the need for senior citizen care and healthy indoor recreation opportunities, resilience to climate change and sea-level rise, food insecurity and the creation of sustainable food systems, supporting and expanding our island's infrastructure. Ultimately, these are today’s and tomorrow’s challenges, all of which are serious and urgent public policy issues facing our Island, our citizens, and our Land Bank.

It is time for the Land Bank and Nantucket to assess our successes over the past 40 years and decide how we can best collaborate with the town, our citizens, and a myriad of island-based organizations to better tackle the issues we face over the next 40 years.

As we undertake this important planning exercise and begin transitioning away from a purely open space acquisition mode to a far more collaborative, visionary, and broader public policy role, we need the active involvement, deliberation and creativity of all our island residents.

This will not be a simple or straightforward process or evolution, but it is of critical importance to determine what we will do over the next 40 years, and to ensure we keep Nantucket Nantucket, for future generations.

We hope everyone who loves our island as much as we do will join us in this planning effort. As Commissioner Reinhard said in the Bushard article, it is not a question of “If”, it’s a very serious question of “How."

Nantucket Land Bank Commissioners
Kristina Jelleme
Mark Donato
Allen B. Reinhard
Neil Paterson
John J. Stackpole