Plan to Save Nantucket Homes Pits
Homeowners Against Fishermen

With summer around the corner, Nantucket is expecting its annual crush of crowds, traffic and outsized wealth. But this year, the Massachusetts island is also bracing for a showdown between fishermen and rich part-time residents that has escalated into a class war.

At the center of the dispute is a small patch of beach on the southeast corner of the island known as Siasconset, or Sconset for short. Some of Nantucket's wealthiest residents -- including cable-TV billionaire Amos Hostetter Jr., businessman Paul Soros (brother of George) and commodities trader Helmut Weymar -- have stately summer homes on a bluff overlooking the beach. But with erosion eating away at the shore, some of the houses are in danger of falling into the ocean.To solve the problem, Mr. Hostetter, Mr. Weymar and others have pooled $23 million of their own money to rebuild the beach. Yet local fishermen are fighting the project, saying it will ruin one of their prime fishing spots. They say the beach should be left alone, and that nature should trump money.

"These people have enough money to move their houses or buy another one," says Josh Eldridge, a lifelong Nantucketer who owns a charter fishing business. "If I lose my fishing business, I lose my house and it's my only house. Unlike these other people, I don't have a ski chalet in Aspen or a place in Palm Beach."

Indeed, what started as a dispute over striped-bass habitats has unleashed broader resentments. Locals have watched their island transformed in recent decades from a low-key, historic summer retreat to a playground for the super-rich. The median home price was $1.8 million last year, according to Realtors, while some houses and properties have recently sold for more than $15 million. Megamansions have been replacing many of the gray-shingled cottages that once defined the 50-square-mile island. Mr. Eldridge says he was saddened recently to see two high-school classmates get on the ferry to leave the island for good, since they no longer could afford to live there.

"Money plays a part in this, since you're talking about multimillion-dollar properties endangered by erosion," says Allen Reinhard, a town council member (or selectman, as they're known) who hasn't decided how he'll vote on the plan, but is generally supportive. "I'm sure there are some people who say this is just the wealthy trying to protect their homes at any expense."

It isn't the first issue that has pitted locals against rich part-timers. Last summer, a dispute arose over the Great Harbor Yacht Club, created by a group of residents who are paying at least $300,000 each for membership. Some locals argued that the $60 million club was taking over important oceanfront that should be accessible to the public. The club has won most of its approvals and is under construction.

Mr. Weymar says he's sympathetic to the concerns of the fishermen, and agrees that the island has changed, in part because of people like him (though he's been coming to Nantucket since the late 1950s). "There's no doubt money has changed the island and given rise to issues like affordable housing," he says, adding that "there may be some class element to what's going on." But he adds that the beach project is in the best interests of all Nantucketers, since it could serve as a model to help protect the rest of the island from erosion. "The benefits of this project far outweigh any inconveniences."

For decades the fierce winds and currents of the Atlantic have been eating away at the shore. Many of the homes in Sconset are over 100 years old, dating to when the fabled Flagg family started building a summer-home development for wealthy New Englanders. Some of Nantucket's most expensive properties are along Sconset's Baxter Road -- a hushed strip of manicured lawns, gabled, three-story houses and stunning ocean views. Messrs. Hostetter, Weymar and Soros all have homes along Baxter, although some of the island's "Old Yankee" families also still live there.

Over the years, homeowners have tried to fend off erosion with walls, sandbags and other stopgaps. But with the pace of erosion increasing, they decided more drastic action was needed. Mr. Weymar estimates his own three-story house, built in 1900, will have to be moved in one to three years unless something is done.

So he and others formed the nonprofit Sconset Beach Preservation Fund (donations to it are tax-deductible). They raised $23 million to rebuild the beach, hoping to avoid a debate over public money being used.

The plan is to dredge sand from the ocean and pump it onto the beach. The state and federal governments have given the plan an initial green light after a two-year environmental review, but they could add further requirements before they issue permits for it. The town council also must approve it.

Fishermen say the dredging would ruin a prized spot for striped bass. The area has a "cobble" bottom, with rocks and gravel that attract plankton and other ocean life. They say the dredged sand will eventually wash over the cobble feeding area. They also say that since the dredging has to be done during the summer, when the seas are calmest, all the trucks, drilling, barges and stadium lights at night will disrupt the community.

Mr. Weymar says his group plans to build an artificial reef out of concrete railroad ties to keep up the bass population. He also says they will pay fishermen any wages or income that they may lose because of the project.

Yet the fishermen are unmoved. "These are people who are used to getting their way," says Bob DeCosta, another longtime resident and fisherman. "They love their houses and I don't blame them for wanting to save them. But it's not worth the cost to Nantucket."

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