(May 16, 2024) Dave Iverson said last week that when he first took his seat on the Planning Board five years ago, he was naive about the impact he could have. Now a more veteran planner, he understands the bounds of his influence.
“What became apparent in the end is that it’s a game of inches, not miles. We can institute change, but it’s more of an application by application (basis). The dream of stopping development all together is, at least in my perspective, near impossible,” he said.
“I still think of myself as not a pro-development, but an anti- development person, but I understand where I can have effect on it and where I can’t,” he said.
The incumbent chair is now in a contested race for his seat on the five-person Planning Board against an outspoken opponent of island planning practices, Campbell Sutton.
Voters will elect one of the two candidates Tuesday.
“People should have an option, and I’m an option,” Sutton said this week. She didn’t want the race to go uncontested.
“I’m trying to make sure we have a process that reflects democracy in some fashion when it comes to voting.”
She feels equipped for the role due to her experience in the building trades and as a former alternate member of the Planning Board, serving from 2018 to 2022.
Her main goal, if elected, would be to foster more community involvement in the planning process. She thinks that would be beneficial so people in the community understand proposals at Town Meeting.
“In our current form of government, the voters are not only voters, they’re legislators. They should be knowledgeable about plans that are being developed that are going to affect them,” she said.
She also thinks public input would be beneficial as the board looks to update the town’s 15-year master plan, last updated in 2009. The board plans to hold a handful of meetings to seek public comment when the plan is more developed, but Sutton doesn’t think that’s enough outreach.
“It’s box-checking, to say that they’ve done it. I think the proof in the pudding is whether input is actively included in decision making,” she said.
As an example of the public being excluded in the past, she pointed to the violation of the state’s open-meeting law by the Nantucket Planning & Economic Development Commission when hiring planning director Leslie Snell last year. All five members of the Planning Board sit on the commission as it’s currently constituted, including Iverson.
“This is an example of par for the course, this is what (they’ve) been doing for the last 15 years, and it’s just now, because of a particular topic, that you’re getting exposed. That seems like a problem. Problem enough that I think we need new people,” Sutton said.
Iverson, who earlier this year sold Indian Summer Surf Shop, maintains that he had no influence on the decisions that caused the violation and thinks some of the criticism he and others have faced in the aftermath has been unfair.
“There seems to be this ugly habit in this town recently of what I call manufacturing outrage, and it’s really unproductive, and it really doesn’t need to happen,” he said. “It is outrageous to believe that board members are conspiring with staff members to do hidden things behind the public’s back. It just doesn’t happen.”
Sutton believes another way to include the public would be through forums on different topics, maybe with one board member answering questions in a public format.
“People can tell when you’re actually listening to them,” she said.
As a former teacher, she thinks she could serve the public well in those types of discussions.
“We need to try and line up the town’s agenda with support in the community,” Sutton said.”
Input at public hearings for projects is welcomed but sometimes board members can only do so much, Iverson said. He pointed to the Sparks Avenue development called by its proponent “the new downtown,” which was in front of the board for nearly two years. Members of the public were largely against the 32-unit commercial development, but the Planning Board did not have the power to deny the developer’s right to build it. Instead, they imposed conditions.
“In the end we got him to promise 25 percent affordable units which would give us all of his units to count toward the SHI list,” Iverson said.
Adding those units to the Subsidized Housing Inventory helps the town stay on par with state affordability standards and prevents 40B developments from being built on the island.
“I felt like I really kind of bent the curb to benefit the community. We couldn’t vote no because he was building by right. If it wouldn’t have passed, he would’ve sued the town, it would’ve cost the town, and he would’ve gotten to build it anyway. That’s part of the conundrum we have. That’s where we’re at,” Iverson said.
Iverson did vote no on that application, but more as a protest, he said, because it passed 4-1.
“I don’t have any skin in this game. I don’t own STRs, I’m not a developer. I want what’s best for the community I’ve lived in for over 40 years that I love. That’s the only reason I’m here,” he said.
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