Looking back in time, unlike most towns in the United States, Nantucket Island had no formal regulations for the development of land. From the mid 1800’s to 1920’s some large scale grid style sub divisions were filed on the island without formal planning. Nantucket was slow to adopt any controls. Thankfully, many of the proposed sub divisions were never developed.
In 1928 Nantucket voted to create a Planning Board to generate rules and guidelines for future development. Sadly, no one was ever appointed to this Board. Years later in 1951 at Town Meeting, zoning was proposed and was quickly shot down by over 2/3rds of the voters. In 1966 a zoning committee was authorized and the first master plan was created 2 years later. Finally in 1972, zoning was officially adopted along with some other land use regulations. This adoption was a reaction to the Nantucket Sound Island Trust bill, also known as the Kennedy Bill. This proposed federal legislation was focused on turning Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard into a National Land Trust, much like the Cape Cod National Seashore. Many felt this bill was a federal “seizure” of the island. The bill did not pass, but it compelled Nantucket to move forward with an island wide Historic District Commission, the Conservation Commission and the Nantucket Planning and Economic Development Commission.