Demolition Delay Bylaw FAQ for Special Town Meeting

Update: Article 8 passed at Special Town Meeting! Thank you to all who came out and voted in favor of supporting Nantucket’s tradition of house recycling.


Nantucket Preservation Trust is sponsoring a citizen warrant article for Nantucket Special Town Meeting on Tuesday, September 17. Article number 8 amends the existing demolition delay bylaw within Nantucket’s Zoning code to clarify when a building that is slated for demolition but has housing reuse potential must be advertised for reuse, and extends the amount of time that an interested party has to complete a move. Click here to read the full text of the article on page 19 of the Warrant for Special Town Meeting, and read on for answers to some frequently asked questions about the bylaw change.

If you are a registered Nantucket voter, we hope to see you at Special Town Meeting at Nantucket High School on Tuesday, September 17! Make your voice heard in support of saving buildings from the landfill and creating more much needed housing.

What are the proposed changes to the demolition delay bylaw?

There are two main changes we are proposing to the demolition delay bylaw.

  • The first change is to the procedure around advertising buildings that are available to be reused. The existing bylaw requires a building that can be reused be advertised as available to be moved for thirty days in the paper before it can be demolished.

This bylaw proposes that buildings would be advertised to be moved after the Historic District Commission has weighed in and approved the demolition application.

  • The second change deals with the demolition delay time period. Right now, houses that are available to be moved as a result of the demolition delay bylaw are “made available to any interested party subject to the ability to move structure within 60 days” from the date that the house was advertised in the newspaper.

We are proposing that a house be “made available to any interested party subject to the ability to move the structure within 180 days” from the date the house was first advertised in the newspaper.

This means that if an interested party is serious about wanting to move a house with reuse potential, a demolition permit would not be issued for 180 days, giving the person who wants to move the house onto their property the time to get approval from local boards (HDC, ZBA), and schedule the move.

You can read the bylaw here (page 19 at the link).

What if I advertise the house for 30 days and nobody wants it?

There is no proposed change to the 30-day advertising period required by the existing bylaw. If no bona fide letters of interest are received during the 30-day advertising period, a demolition can move forward as planned. If there is a serious party who is prepared to move the house, then the 180-day period begins.

Who decides what a bona fide letter of interest is?

As defined in the existing bylaw, the Building Commissioner or Local Inspector decides what constitutes a serious letter of interest. This will stay the same.

Why does the existing bylaw need to be updated?

Sixty days is not enough time to move a building on Nantucket.

The utility companies require a 45-day noticing period to alert homeowners along the proposed route of a house move that they will have disruptions to their power and telephone service.

There is currently a moratorium on moving houses between June 15 and September 15. That means that any houses advertised during this period could not be moved within the existing demolition delay timeframe.

Why 180 days?

Six months is the baseline for most demolition delay bylaws within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Of the Massachusetts towns with demolition delay bylaws, only 12 (including Nantucket) have a demolition delay of less than six months. 95 municipalities in Massachusetts have a demolition delay of six months or more. A longer delay period allows for a higher likelihood of the successful move and reuse of a house. In conversations with homeowners and agencies who have successfully moved houses, six months (180 days) is a reasonable amount of time to move a house on Nantucket.

Won’t this add time (and money) to a project?

As many house moves create year-round housing for Nantucketers, or seasonal employee housing for Nantucket business owners, it is in the best interest of the person who wants to move the house to act as quickly as they can. The proposed delay is six months to accommodate the long lead time required to permit and schedule an over-the-road move, but most people will want to move a house as soon as scheduling permits. 

What are the goals of the bylaw change?

The goals of this bylaw change are to minimize the amount of demolition debris that ends up in landfills and to give interested parties a chance to move building that would otherwise be torn down onto their land. Moving houses creates more year-round housing units at no cost to the taxpayer. These are the same goals as the original bylaw when it was written in 1997.

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