Homeowners ask Nantucket County to formalize Eagan Lane easement to enable lot subdivisions

Jesse Brescher, representing the Center Place Homeowners Association, asked the Town Real Estate Assessment Committee on June 16, 2025, to recommend that Nantucket County accept an access easement over Eagan Lane in the Center Place subdivision to create legal frontage for interior parcels and enable certain subdivisions.

Brescher told the committee the area was developed in the early 1990s with narrow “strip” lot configurations that leave many rear parcels without legal frontage. "We're trying to clean it up and to make this look much more like a traditional subdivision," he said, explaining that transferring an easement to the county — rather than fee ownership — would simplify the process through registered-land procedures and facilitate land-court approvals. He added that homeowners would remain responsible for road maintenance and have agreed to pay the county's legal fees to accomplish the transfer.

The plan, supported by town planning staff, would preserve existing uses on front parcels while changing zoning for pieces of the site: committee discussion said the proposal leans toward CN for front lots and CTEK for back lots and would remove an RC 2 designation. Committee members said the formal easement would give interior parcels the frontage needed to subdivide; Brescher said the original lots that have not already subdivided could be split to create a maximum of three buildable lots in some cases.

Committee members discussed mapping, the existing paved roadway, and how the proposed easements (labeled in the plan as several easement segments) create legal frontage without adding new driveways onto Old South Road. Brescher said about 14 of the narrow strips are shown on the plan and that roughly 10 interior parcels might be eligible to subdivide under the proposals discussed.

Lee Saperstein, the senior nonofficer in attendance who presided after the chair recused himself, moved that the committee recommend presenting the plan to the county commission (the governing board/select board). Jesse Bell seconded. In a roll call, Saperstein and Bell voted aye; Chair John Brecher was recused and other members were unavailable. The committee approved forwarding the proposal; the presentation to the county commission is scheduled for the commission meeting on June 25, 2025.

Committee members and staff noted this recommendation does not itself change property titles or zoning; it forwards a plan and supporting materials for public hearing and county-commission consideration. Planning staff and the homeowners association will provide clearer owner-boundary visuals for the commission, and the homeowners association intends to cover the county's legal costs associated with the transfer.

Next steps: the county commission will consider the presentation on June 25; any formal taking of an easement, land-court filings, or zoning actions would be separate proceedings requiring additional approvals and, where applicable, land-court or registered-land processes.