Under its enabling legislation, the Nantucket Land Bank can utilize the revenue from the two percent transfer fee it collects on real estate transactions to acquire land that must be dedicated to open space, recreation, or agricultural uses. In recent years, a number of community groups have pushed the Land Bank to interpret those three categories broadly, advocating for the Land Bank to support affordable housing or an indoor recreation center.
And the Land Bank has started to respond to residents’ concerns. Its elected commissioners are considering whether they could legally construct an indoor recreation center, and distributed a letter earlier this year in which they said it was time to take an active role in addressing the island’s housing crsis, writing that they plan to begin “transitioning away from a purely open space acquisition mode.”
This week, Nantucket saw perhaps the most notable example of the Land Bank’s new approach to date: the pending, collaborative purchase of a Boynton Lane property intended to serve as a food security hub for Nantucket. The facility will feature both a permanent home for the Food Pantry and a commercial butchery that can be used to process donated deer meat for distribution to islanders in need. But how would that property acquisition fit into the parameters of the Land Bank’s enabling legislation?
“As a commission, we have had a long-standing wish to have something like this, like an abattoir, for the agricultural component of our act,” Land Bank Commission chair Kristina Jelleme said.
Jelleme and Land Bank executive director Rachael Freeman both emphasized that the venison processing operation could eventually extend to other livestock, such as poultry or cattle, saying that this meat processing counts as agriculture. But Freeman said she understood why some Nantucketers might have questions.
“We’re well aware of what falls within our act and what doesn’t, so we’re being quite cognizant of that in this collaboration. I can see why it’s a question, but we do feel strongly that this falls within the agricultural component of our act,” she said. “We are very aware of our limitations and how our act operates.”
Freeman and Jelleme said that the details of the collaboration between the Land Bank, Nourish Nantucket, and the Food Pantry are not yet decided, and that it isn’t certain whether the purchase will have to go back before the Land Bank before it is finalized. Freeman declined to comment on how the property will be divided and whether the Land Bank will be giving any direct financial support to the Food Pantry.
But she did say that the collaborative approach made sense.
“We don’t require the whole building, so it was a far better collaborative purchase,” she said. “It became apparent that everyone’s needs could be met in this one space.”
The Land Bank hopes to gain support from both the community and local hunters for its efforts.
Freeman said that the Land Bank is not primarily focused on sharply increasing the take of deer on Nantucket, but rather on making sure things go smoothly and a second year of operation is secured. To that end, they are looking to hire a full-time seasonal employee to work as a venison processing manager at the butchery.
Dining and Cooking