Nantucket Panel Reviews $375,000 Erosion Study, New Coastal Flood Rules

NANTUCKET — June 9, 2026 — Nantucket's Coastal Resilience Advisory Committee reviewed a nearly $375,000 erosion study, flood insurance basics, and proposed higher-standard floodplain bylaws at its June 9 meeting. Engineering firm Arcadis told the committee that roughly 150 feet of shoreline has eroded adjacent to the Surfside Wastewater Treatment Facility over the past two years, with emergency DEP authorization already issued to close and fill its most seaward sand beds; the study, funded with just under $300,000 in Massachusetts CZM grant money plus town in-kind and Coastal Resilience Planning Fund contributions, aims to deliver a 10 percent concept design and funding package by February 2027. Floodplain specialist Shannon Holst of Barnstable County and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Sea Grant noted Nantucket holds 850 National Flood Insurance Program policies at an average annual cost of $2,800, with secondary-home owners facing rate increases capped at 25 percent annually. Holst also introduced a Cape Cod Commission-developed higher-standard bylaw package that would prohibit new development in high-wave-action coastal zones and bar rebuilding of structures substantially damaged by coastal storms twice. Committee member Doug Rose proposed the panel recommend to the Select Board that it raise three state-level barriers — road discontinuance complexity, the municipal betterments sequence, and insurance regulations — with state legislators, drawing an offer from Representative Moakley's staffer RJ Turcotte to facilitate a legislative appearance at a future meeting.