The Select Board Is Obligated To Stop Work At Surfside Crossing

This letter was originally sent to the Nantucket Select Board

To the editor: If you've been paying attention to Surfside Crossing for the past eight plus years, or the Sconset Bluff Preservation Fund where material from a septic field was dumped down the bluff and into the ocean, or to Beach Plum Village (you can just look on the town's website at the multiple lawsuits brought against them by the “affordables” ) - in my opinion, if you've been paying attention, then you know that the developers for Surfside Crossing will try to get away with everything and anything that they can. And you're letting them.

As Nantucket’s “sewer commissioners,” you have the authority, and I would say the obligation, to issue a stop-work order until the developers have an actual permitted building plan in place. We have been talking for over eight years about our health, safety, and environmental concerns. None of that has been addressed by the developers. What we saw coming, and what is happening now, is the impact on our quality of life, which I cannot overstate.

With no A/C, we don't open the windows at all during the day because of the noise and the dirt (which is all over our porch and house). If I wake up early enough, I get maybe 30 minutes of peace before our entire house starts shaking and the roar of industrial-scale building begins. It's the same for the abutters and all of the families on our formerly rural dirt road. Our well (and that of our son) sits perilously close to what will be approximately 75 percent impervious surface with an inadequate (which by definition means illegal) stormwater system. This is the infrastructure that they continue to install “at their own risk”.

Several weeks ago, and again last week, they dumped what appeared to be topsoil. Given their track record (Sconset Bluff – septic field), I am deeply concerned that they are doing the same in a wellhead recharge district. When they first started installing infrastructure – and after being told specifically not to – they refueled trucks at the site. It seems to me that these guys have proven time and time again that they need constant supervision and support to adhere to the law. And speaking of the law, how is it even possible that the Building Commissioner, Paul Murphy, issued a permit? For a building site that has no plans that have been approved by the ZBA and the HDC. The 40B plan was rejected by a Massachusetts Superior Court judge. That ruling trumps whatever authority the Building Commissioner has, and even whatever authority the Select Board has. How did the Housing Appeals Committee come to intervene? Well, I asked Paul Murphy those very questions via email and his reply was “I’m not qualified to dispense legal advice. I suggest you speak with your attorney about the issue of jurisdiction.”

So, I’m writing with the hope that you could be a little more helpful. Is it possible that Mr. Murphy did not consult town counsel prior to permitting actions that drastically impact an ongoing legal appeal - the current litigation that THE TOWN is involved in? As Building Commissioner, he could put the best interests of this community first and insist on actions that protect the citizens of Nantucket. I am here asking the same of you.

Thank you,

Joan Alison Stockman