Rachel Freeman, executive director of the Nantucket Land Bank, briefed the Affordable Housing Trust on Dec. 2 about the Land Bank’s structure, capacity and potential collaboration opportunities with housing partners.

Freeman emphasized that the Land Bank is a public county entity (overseen within state executive structures) funded primarily through a real‑estate transfer fee rather than a property tax. She told the Trust the Land Bank owns roughly 3,500 acres and houses about 49 year‑round employees across Land Bank properties and that the commission has staff and policy capacity to pursue multiple collaboration models with housing organizations.

Freeman described tools the Land Bank could deploy to support affordable housing: conservation restrictions or other partial restrictions to reduce land costs for housing while preserving open space; subsidies or support for relocating and reusing well‑built structures; and administrative or advocacy support for a housing transfer fee model. She cited examples seen on Martha’s Vineyard, where the Land Bank worked with Island Housing Trust on collaborative site acquisitions and infrastructure strategies to enable ownership and rental projects.

Trust members welcomed the overview and discussed constraints on developable land on Nantucket; members noted collaboration opportunities could be limited by island size and parcel availability but welcomed further exploration. Freeman and the Trust agreed to continue conversations about specific parcels, potential conservation restriction structures and how the Land Bank could align with Town housing programs.