Nantucket Retreat and Relocation Program Gets First Committee Preview Before April Public Meeting

NANTUCKET -- March 24, 2026, Nantucket's Coastal Resilience Advisory Committee previewed the island-wide Strategic Retreat and Relocation Program at its March 24 meeting, grilling consultants on public messaging, available land, and financial incentives before a first virtual open house set for April 16. Laura Moret, principal at lead consultant SCAPE, told the committee the program is voluntary and is not intended to force property owners to move, but acknowledged that Nantucket is the only Massachusetts municipality taking on managed retreat "at the scale that you are." Arcadis partner Devin McKay presented mapping projecting that approximately 1,500 structures, about 12 percent of island-wide structures, face coastal storm surge exposure by end of century. Member Gary Beller underscored the land-availability problem: only about 4 percent of the island is currently undeveloped and unprotected, with 53 to 54 percent under private conservation restrictions that cannot simply be repurposed for relocation. Member Sarah Boyce warned that a planned survey question asking residents whether they had personally experienced flooding or erosion could backfire, with suspicious property owners interpreting it as an attempt to identify vulnerable parcels. The committee voted unanimously to approve minutes from its January 13 and January 27 meetings and adjourned with its next meeting set for April 14.