No Green Light for Surfside Crossing

To the editor: I have called Nantucket home since 1996. I also have the privilege of being able to attend three-hour ZBA meetings during a workday as a recently retired teacher in the public school system. I want to extend a huge shout-out to the ZBA board members for their tireless commitment to understanding how to proceed with the Surfside Crossing development. I know many of my friends and fellow community members would love to be able to have a stable affordable place to live. I want, and believe in affordable housing. However, I cannot support the overbuilding of affordable housing units at the risk of the safety and welfare of the people in our community and environment.

I have been following ZBA meetings from the early days in 2018 when we filled the high school auditorium, and while the developers continue to espouse their altruistic mission, it’s a wolf in sheep‘s clothing.

Real concerns about handicap access to sidewalks and curb cuts, lack of adequate parking spaces, access for emergency vehicles, and increased traffic have been discussed. During the last three sessions, it was brought to the board’s and the developers’ attention the need to create a more intensive stormwater runoff treatment plan to protect not only the water for future residents and private wells in the surrounding area, but also our sole source aquifer from contamination to which the developers have been thus far, unwilling to consider.

At a recent ZBA hearing, Beau Barber, former Nantucket firefighter who was among those who battled the Veranda House fire in 2022, agreed with the former fire chief's 2019 assessment that a fire at SSX would present an ‘overwhelming responsibility on the fire department’, and disagreed with current fire chief Cranson’s recent comments that current water pressure and quantity could handle an emergency of that magnitude (there are 18 32’ high structures proposed). Barber went on to recount the near-peak amount of water and pressure that was needed to extinguish that fire. Chillingly, he went on to mention that presently "the town is woefully underinvested in its water infrastructure."

This issue, above all others, concerns me the most, and should concern everyone in this community, especially considering the very recent reports in our local news outlets regarding the shutting down of one of the town’s public water wells due to contamination. Currently, the developers are unwilling to make any concessions to the number of buildings or other measures in order to comply with the DEP requirements for stormwater mitigation in this sensitive zone 2 area. We cannot allow developers to endanger the health of our island environment and the people who live here.

If we as a community ignore this clear danger, and cave into deep-pocketed developers’ demands, the debates concerning STRs, wind turbines, where and how we pay for a new Our Island Home, and other such issues, will be a waste of time because no one will be able to live or vacation here if we can no longer protect the quality of our water or drink it.

Barbara Condon