In a scene that has played out in communities across the state, residents and town officials on Nantucket have waged a yearslong campaign to stop a development proposal for new housing. This one would bring 156 condominiums — a quarter of which would be set aside as affordable housing — to a neighborhood in the central part of the island. Opposition to new housing on Nantucket puts the island squarely in company with lots of affluent communities in Massachusetts, where efforts to address a dire housing shortage often run into stiff resistance.
But in the latest chapter of the battle on Nantucket, which has stretched on for seven years, opponents have seized on an issue often championed by communities of color and progressive activists to fight industrial pollution in low-income communities as part of their campaign to block affordable housing in a high-cost enclave where it is desperately needed.
Based on the 2020 Census, the section of Nantucket where developers hope to build their 40B affordable housing project known as Surfside Crossing is now recognized as an environmental justice community under state rules.
To qualify, an area’s population must have below-average median household income or high percentages of minority individuals or households with limited English proficiency. This part of Nantucket, home to a large Hispanic community, qualifies an environmental justice community because minorities make up 40 percent or more of the population.
Citing the new environmental justice designation, residents opposed to the project filed a “fail-safe review” petition with the state’s top environmental official on August 25 — a direct appeal to Energy and Environmental Affairs Secretary Rebecca Tepper to order the developer to release additional environmental information before the project can advance, a move that would further stall the proposal.
Whether it’s just a calculated bid to pull any available lever in the NIMBY arsenal or the legitimate invocation of a serious environmental threat, or perhaps both, is now in the hands of the Healey administration.
It’s the exact kind of bureaucratic wrangling Gov. Maura Healey has sought to reduce, and it cuts right at the heart of the tensions surrounding her push to build 220,000 new homes by 2035. And while Healey has also voiced strong support for environmental justice issues, she has proposed changes to regulations under the Massachusetts Environmental Policy Act, the main law governing state environmental review of development projects, that her administration say are aimed at promoting more affordable housing.
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Published by MassINC