HomeMy WebLinkAbout20140318-RROWmemo-BaxterRdPublicAccess_201404071313160040
TO: The Board of Selectmen Courtesy of the Town Manager
FROM: The Roads and Right of Way Committee
DATE: March 18, 2014
RE: Public Access in the Baxter Road and Sankaty Beach Areas
In our advisory role to the Board of Selectmen, we would like to bring two matters of public access to
your attention.
One, the Sconset Foot-Path: The R&ROW Committee has spent considerable time during the past years
working on issues of public access in the Baxter Road area, specifically to the Sconset Foot-Path. As a
result of the recommendations contained in the Report of the Sconset Foot-Path Subcommittee, the Town
has initiated actions to ensure public access across certain lateral ways from Baxter Road to the foot-path,
as well as adopting a Management Plan for the path. The Committee has also erected Public Way markers
at certain points indicating access to the path.
Portions of the foot-path have been lost due to erosion, most notably in the section north of 65 Baxter
Road. A provision of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the Town and the Sconset
Beach Preservation Fund (SBPF), dated July 2013, references reinstallation of the bluff walk in this area,
specifically:
(1) SBPF has proposed in Phase I the construction of a coastal erosion structure consisting of a
rock revetment and reinstallation of the bluff walk for a distance of approximately 1500 linear
feet located between approximately 75 and 119 Baxter Road… [Page 2, (1.). Emphasis added.]
The installation of Phase I, reduced to 900 feet and re-engineered from rocks to geotextile tubes is, for the
most part, complete. However, during the many weeks of permitting and construction that have led up to
this point, there has been no reference to reinstallation of the “bluff walk.”
We respectfully bring this to the Board’s attention and request that steps be taken to implement this
important provision of the MOU.
Two, the public beach below the bluff: During the course of the research conducted by the Sconset
Foot-Path Public Access Subcommittee, the R&ROW Committee learned more about the
Memorandum to the BOS 2
Proprietors’ beach below the bluff and how this stretch of beach came to be owned by the citizens of
Nantucket. From “The Path Along The Bluff,” by Edouard A. Stackpole:
It was early in 1873 that Mr. Flagg obtained title to a large section of land between ‘Sconset and
Sankaty, in that portion of the island laid out by the original Proprietors as “Plainfield,” bordering
on Sesachacha lots. Although the original title gave him ownership to the foot of the bluff itself,
the “Proprietors” reserved for themselves the beach land from the foot of the bluff to mean
high water.” [Page 1 of 3. Emphasis added. Originally published in “Historic Nantucket,” Vol.
20, No. 4, April 1973.]
As erosion-control efforts in this area, sanctioned by the Town, moved forward, we ask the Town to be
proactive in ensuring that public access to the beach below the bluff be maintained, at a minimum, if not
enhanced.
As this area is almost certain to be subject to further erosion, with the beach receding into land that is
privately owned, perhaps this is the time to negotiate with the private property owners in the area to
secure One Big Beach (OBB) easements along the beach. Since the Town is allowing the private property
owners in the area to benefit from the use of public land — the beach — to protect their houses, it seems
only fair to ask them for something in exchange that will benefit the public. These easements will help
Nantucket maintain access for the public to the beach envisioned by Mr. Flagg.
In addition, we advise the Board to consider the impacts of whatever erosion-control measures the Town
supports on the public’s ability to use the beach it owns. Safe access along what beach is still public
should be a priority. [See Attachment for cross section of the then proposed geotextile engineering
structure, dated October 26, 2013. Red line denotes boundary of Town property that lies seaward.] Unless
some semblance of beach is preserved below the bluff for citizens to pass and re-pass safely, there would
be no need for OBB.
We thank you for your consideration and stand by, as a Committee, to assist in any ways we can.
ATTACHMENT