In a previous post concerning Nantucket and Steven Karp the “editor’s note” was that I did not know what a “Land Bank” was.

Well, Grant Sanders, the host of www.yakon.com, a website which many consider to be the place to find out what is really going on around Nantucket, sent me this information which I think is pretty interesting:

“The Nantucket Island’s Land Bank, the first org of its kind in the country, is a commission which collects a 2% fee from all real estate purchases here and uses those funds to buy, preserve and maintain open space. Currently just under 50% of the island is preserved as open space (by as many as seven or eight separate conservation organizations). Hopefully by the end of this year, that number will jump to 52% with the purchase of a conservation easement on a 270-acre parcel here known as the Linda Loring property.

Nantucket and the Vineyard are also starting a housing bank which would take 1% from the sale of a new home here. The money (around 9 million annually) will go to fund affordable housing initiatives.

You can read about the Land Bank at www.nantucketlandbank.org.”

You know what I really like? I really like the idea of a “housing bank” which would take 1% from the sale of any new construction by a developer and put it towards affordable housing. That works for me.

Mary Eaton
Newburyport