- Plans to build an affordable housing project on Nantucket, Surfside Crossing, were first submitted in April 2018, and have been hotly contested ever since
- Developers want to create 156 homes on a 13.5-acre site, with 70 percent designated for people who live on the island year-round
- They said 15 of the homes and 24 of the condos would be sold for between $261,000 and $373,000, but locals say the island cannot support the building
Plans to build an affordable housing complex in Nantucket remain in limbo after locals objected to the scheme, insisting the affluent island does not have the infrastructure or resources for the development.
Surfside Crossing promised 156 homes on the 13.5-acre site, with 70 percent designated for people who live on the island year-round.
On an island where a 5,075- square-foot home recently went for $33 million, and where Blackstone CEO Stephen Schwarzman spends his summers, securing housing for those working in tourism or the local economy is a perennial challenge.
Local developers Jamie Feeley and Josh Posner, who previously constructed an award-winning 40-home affordable housing project on the island called Beach Plum Village, said that their proposal was the answer.
Developers have produced these images of their plans for Surfside Crossing, on Nantucket
The island of Nantucket, off the coast of Massachusetts, has long attracted wealthy tourists and second home owners: affordable housing has been a perennial problem
They said that 15 of the homes and 24 of the condos would be sold for between $261,000 and $373,000, and none of the 156 properties would be more than $1 million.
Yet locals have for five years been fighting to stop the scheme.
