Dirk Roggeveen, who chairs the island's Historic District Commission and is the administrator of the conservation board, said some of the criticism is reaction against the exclusivity of a new wave of private clubs developed in recent years.
Most, such as a golf club developed in the 1990s that reportedly sells memberships for more than $150,000, and a proposed tennis facility, have generated little controversy.
Developers want to raze Grey Lady Marine, built in 1917, to make room for an exclusive yacht club. Critics say the project will cause traffic jams and generate too much noise.
(Photos Jonathan Finer -- The Washington Post)
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"The view you get from some people on the street is that this isn't what Nantucket should be all about, and that there's an insatiable demand for clubs because of people with so much money congregating here," Roggeveen said. "My family goes back 12 generations here, and I like the boatyard the old way. But as a public official, you have to step back and not just enforce what you'd like to see happen. There're plenty of people around here who think it's perfectly okay."
Charles Sayle isn't one of them. The lifelong islander and former scallop fisherman's market, with tanks of fresh lobster and a workroom out back where fishermen in rubber suits shuck scallops by hand, is right next to the proposed yacht club.
"It would probably raise my property value, but I'm not selling, so it doesn't matter much," said Sayle, 61, whose four years in the Coast Guard were the only ones he has spent living off the island. As the dispute has grown contentious, he said, a restraining order was granted that forbids him, and some other opponents, from entering club property.
"Unlike some people, I am not opposed to the idea of a yacht club," he added. "They are just trying to do too much with too little space, and if they don't scale it back, the whole thing will be a big mess."
But McCarthy said the project has already been modified to meet concerns raised by town officials, including reducing the number of slips from 79 to 40. He said that he will continue to operate a boatyard on the property that islanders can use in case of an emergency and that changes in design have reduced the amount of eel grass to be destroyed by dredging to a small area.
"A lot of the concerns have been dealt with," said Tracy Bakalar, executive director of the Nantucket Island Chamber of Commerce, which has not taken a position on the yacht club. "We self-regulate to the nth degree on Nantucket, with so many boards and applications at every step along the way. Do we struggle with these issues? Yes. But the developers seem to be doing things right."
