Town staff outline phased plan to build municipal employee housing on Waite Drive; committee urges smaller, concrete first‑phase ask

The housing department presented a phased plan on Nov. 6 to develop municipal employee housing on town‑owned parcels on Waite Drive, recommending the Capital Committee back a targeted first‑phase appropriation to engage an owner’s project manager (OPM), complete site design and obtain construction bids before the May town meeting.

Christie Ferantella, the town’s housing specialist, told the committee Nantucket faces acute year‑round housing pressure: median home prices are about $3.5 million and median monthly rent is about $3,000 while median family income is roughly $160,000. A municipal employee survey indicated 52% of respondents said their housing was tied to their ability to work for the town and two‑thirds expected to lose their housing within three years.

Ferantella described the Waite Drive site as three contiguous lots (with an option to reconfigure into five lots) adjacent to recent Habitat for Humanity construction and a municipal dorm. The concept she showed, prepared by Griffin Architects, would allow two structures per reconfigured lot (duplexes or small single‑family homes…