The Vacation Industrial Complex Rears Its Head Again

To the editor: A recent headline in the Boston Globe decried the real estate industry’s torpedoing of the 2 percent surcharge on large real estate transactions to fund affordable housing. The timing was prescient, as locally we are again watching the Nantucket real estate industry try to torpedo the will of the people of Nantucket to protect their Vacation Industrial Complex. There is something rotten in Nantucket.

It has become painfully apparent that the real estate industry and its Vacation Industrial Complex have control over many of the levers of political power in the town, starting at the top and working down through every sub-commission. This has created a significant disconnect between the will of the voters and the law of the land; and the way the town is governed. When they don’t like a law, they ignore it and try to change it; when they don’t like a commission, they reconstitute it; when they don’t like someone on a committee, they throw them off.

Regarding short-term rentals (STRs): once again, they created a fake committee, negotiated with themselves, and found a “compromise” that they will try to launder through a Special Town Meeting. For the record, what was created did not compromise at all with Charity Benz and the Put Nantucket Neighborhoods First group, who seemingly represent the majority of Nantucket voters. What was produced is a joke and far worse than Article 59. It allows for eight rentals in July and August and unlimited rentals in the off-season. It also effectively legalizes chains of STRs as long as each property is owned by a different LLC and then grandfathers most of the existing ones.

When they don’t like the way a commission is voting, they simply reconstitute the commission. Witness the recent stunt regarding the Conservation Commission, where they succeeded in appointing a real estate developer. Huh? Pretty brazen.

Even worse, the Zoning Board of Appeals is controlled by real estate attorneys, real estate agents, and a person who has a business decorating STRs. All have direct economic conflicts of interest regarding STRs, and yet they contend that Lisa Botticelli has a conflict because she is on the board of an advocacy group. Are you kidding me? Lisa is likely the only person on the Board who does not have a conflict.

Nantucket, are you getting a fox guarding the henhouse feeling?

Why do our town elders who assemble these committees think the real estate industry has any leverage or even deserves a seat at the table? Why are our elected representatives and town employees spending millions of taxpayer dollars to enable this? They are ignoring the fact that legalizing STRs throughout the island has been voted down four consecutive times at Town Meeting. Both the Supreme Judicial Court and the Land Court have stated that STRs are commercial businesses operating in residential neighborhoods and are ILLEGAL except as an “accessory use.”

And yet our public officials are tone-deaf to both the law and the will of the people.

It is pretty clear at this point that the town government and the various boards are either reporting directly to the real estate industry and its Vacation Industrial Complex or are actually part of the industry itself.

Voters have consistently spoken and want STRs restricted. It would seem simple enough to define accessory use, move on, and stop spending our money on lawyers and special town meetings. People are sick of it. It’s becoming more and more clear who exactly is the Vacation Industrial Complex that is controlling the island and its political levers. A recent memo from a real estate attorney shed light on the participants of this operation and the incestuous relationship that they have with town employees.

Why is John Giorgio still the Town Counsel anyway? He has cost us millions of dollars based on his interpretation of zoning law regulations and is on a losing streak that rivals the Washington Generals. The answer is because the town of Nantucket (i.e., the Real Estate Industry) is paying him a lot of our money, so he took a position on STRs in Nantucket that is directly counter to a position that his law firm espoused after the Styller ruling. Why are Libby Gibson and Leslie Snell cooperating with these guys? It really begs the question of who the hell they are working for and what law they are enforcing — clearly not the voters of Nantucket or Massachusetts and Nantucket zoning law.

The real estate industry says that without STRs the local economy would be destroyed. I say NONSENSE! The economy on Nantucket was fine before STRs, fast ferries, NAREB, or real estate attorneys. In fact, many of us believe it was far healthier and definitely more sustainable than it is today. Bear in mind that these are the same people who have brought us an unsustainable number of people on the island, a need for “affordable housing,” a substantial increase in violent crime, outrageous real estate taxes, and even our own episode of Miami Vice in Nantucket Harbor. The next time you sit in a traffic jam at the rotary, remember it was brought to you by John Giorgio and all of his cronies who are being bought and paid for by our own tax dollars. These people do not have the long-term best interests of Nantucket at heart. Many of them are here to make a buck and will be gone when the boom turns to bust.

Nat Philbrick has it right: Nantucket is becoming “a soulless parody of the place which built its reputation as an historically interesting summer resort.” Do you really want to live in the midst of a vacation factory where a few lawyers and real estate entrepreneurs are the only ones able to sustain themselves in a reasonable lifestyle? We the people want less building, less traffic, more housing for Islanders, and public officials who reflect the will of the voters.

George Spencer III

(editor's note: George Spencer sits on the board of the advocacy group ACK Now)