Appeals Court revives owner's bid to move barn off historic Nantucket site.

Byline: Pat Murphy

The petition of a Nantucket landowner to move a barn off his property is heading back to the town's Historic District Commission for a third time, thanks to a decision by the Appeals Court March 14.

Landowner Jeffrey Kaschuluk's property on North Liberty Street in Nantucket is home to "one of the most historic structures in one of the most historic districts of old Nantucket," the Seth Ray house, built in the mid-1700s, according to the Appeals Court's opinion. Seth Ray's cooper shop, where barrels were made to supply Nantucket's whale oil trade, stands on the adjacent parcel.

Kaschuluk has been seeking to move to elsewhere on the island one of two structures of "lesser pedigree" on the parcel: a barn, completed in or around 1972 but built to match its surroundings in style and materials.

As the Appeals Court notes, local officials in Nantucket have taken "inconsistent positions concerning the historical significance of the barn" over the course of the administrative proceedings and ensuing litigation.

Superior Court Judge Elizabeth M. Fahey eventually held a bench trial on three consolidated complaints for judicial review and found that Kaschuluk's neighbors had standing to oppose the barn's removal and that the first decision of the Nantucket Historic District Commission, denying Kaschuluk's application to remove the barn, must stand.

The Appeals Court agreed that the neighbors had standing but vacated the judgment with respect to the commission's first decision.

That first commission decision had come by a 3-2 vote. The majority noted that the "streetscape of this area of North Liberty Street has particular historical importance and has been described as iconic," and that although the barn was built between 1972 and 1975, it "has become an important part of the historical context and streetscape of the area."

In a subsequent appeal to...