Updated July 24
On Thursday, the Nantucket and Vineyard select boards met to discuss several issues that affect both islands, the most pressing issues being housing, short-term rentals, and municipal staffing. The boards also covered Title 5 septic regulations, and sharks. Chilmark Select Board chair James Malkin called housing “the biggest issue that both of our islands face.”
Both islands lack affordable housing, and officials present at the joint meeting were also concerned that many of the homes are coming off the market for investment purposes.
“One of the issues I have been talking about with various people has been the issue of the constitutionality of limiting housing to a particular class or type of person,” Malkin said.
Nantucket Select Board member Dawn Holdgate detailed Nantucket’s plan on creating housing accessibility. “One proposal is to not allow forms of corporate ownership going forward,” she explained.
Nantucket Select Board member Brooke Mohr added that Nantucket is working on a “new, better definition” of year-round occupancy.
Nantucket is currently using an affordable housing lottery for publicly funded projects, where anyone can apply, but preference would lean heavily toward year-rounders. Seventy percent of the units go to people who are already living on the island full-time, restricting 30 percent for applicants from off-island.
Additionally, Nantucket is working on housing for municipal employees. However, there are difficulties around using state funds for municipal employee housing, which they are trying to address.
Mohr noted the crucial role that housing plays in employment. “We advertised a police chief job without housing, [and got] 10 applicants … we advertised it with housing, [and got] 40,” Mohr said.
Unlike the Vineyard, several of Nantucket’s employees work remotely, coming to the island at least once a month. While this can boost employment, since workers don’t have to find housing on-island, remote work comes with its own set of complications.
“When you have employees who live in other states but are working for you, they tend to have rules that we don’t have. Workers comp might be different, disability insurance, payroll taxes … these states have their own rules,” Nantucket town manager Libby Gibson said.
The Vineyard has yet to implement remote work for municipal employees, and many staff positions are going unfilled. According to West Tisbury town administrator Jen Rand, the health agent position has been open for months. She said that several unbenefited positions have been open for up to a year.
“People don’t want to move here because there’s nowhere to live,” Rand said.
Additionally, the islands both report struggling to regulate short-term rentals. Although there are sporadic laws and taxes for short-term rentals, it is difficult for the towns to keep track.
Rand said that West Tisbury doesn’t have the “bandwidth” to enforce inspections for short-term rentals.
However, Laura Silber of the M.V. Commission mentioned that the commission is awaiting grant funding to conduct a study on short-term rentals. The commission will hear back regarding the grant within the next two weeks.
Board members also briefly touched on the proposed Title 5 septic regulations. Title regulations will require thousands of Cape Cod residents to replace or upgrade their septic systems in an effort to mitigate nitrogen pollution. Currently, the regulations do not apply to the islands, but they could eventually.
“This is going to be a huge cost, I think it should be talked about more,” said Edgartown town administrator James Hagerty.
Hagerty went on to say that it would be “infeasible” to mandate Title 5. He estimated it would cost between $30 million and$ 60 million to upgrade Edgartown’s sewer system.
Tisbury select board member Christina Colarusso added that the Vineyard has a shortage of wastewater operators. “We would need to loop in continuing education and recruitment,” she said of adding advanced septic systems.
Nantucket is currently updating its sewer master plan, and considering joining the Cape Cod and Islands Water Protection Fund to pay for it. The fund collects money from a short-term rental tax, which is redistributed to towns for clean-water initiatives.
The boards also discussed preventing shark attacks. Malkin said that putting up nets around populated beaches to intercept sharks was not successful in Australia, and Vineyard boards concluded that sharks are not enough of a threat to warrant the cost of implementing nets.
The consensus was that shark attacks are not a concern, given the islands’ low seal population.
This story was updated to reflect Jim Malkin’s comments on shark netting.
