Nantucket ZBA closes Surfside Crossing hearing, asks fire chief to seek state review and sets deliberations for March 19

The Town of Nantucket Zoning Board of Appeals closed the public hearing on the Surfside Crossing comprehensive-permit application (20-25-24) on March 4 and voted to ask the Nantucket Fire Department to forward project plans to the Massachusetts Department of Fire Services for an additional review. The board set deliberations to begin at 1 p.m. March 19 at the Nantucket Public Safety Facility.

The matter before the board is a comprehensive-permit application for Surfside Crossing LLC under Massachusetts Chapter 40B rules. The hearing closure ends the public-comment portion of the proceeding; the board’s March 19 meeting will be an open deliberation without additional public comment. Chair Susan McCarthy opened the meeting and confirmed board and staff attendance before the discussion began.

Why it matters: The project drew sustained public safety and emergency-access concerns from abutters and public-safety experts, and the board spent much of the meeting on whether to obtain an independent peer review and on securing an outside fire-safety assessment. Those items could introduce new technical information into the record before the board issues a decision.

Peer-review update and who pays

Board members discussed whether to withdraw a request for an updated peer review from Bristol Engineers after the Select Board did not vote on funding before the ZBA’s hearing deadline. The meeting record contains an estimate for the update described as being “in the ballpark of $8,000 to $11,000” (amounts cited in the record are approximate). The board decided not to withdraw the request and to let…