Nahant News

Starting back in June 2024, we began reviewing the fee schedule for fiscal year 2025 and opened up a public comment period. We opened the first public comment period that ended on August 7th, 2024.

We are now extending the final public comment period to August 16, 2024 where all comments will be reviewed by the Board of Selectmen before they take a vote on the fee schedule at an upcoming public meeting.

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Each fiscal year the Board of Selectmen review and vote on the Town’s Master Fee Schedule for the upcoming year.

The fee schedule includes all fees that departments in Town charge for services.

With the conclusion of fiscal year 2024, the Board of Selectmen has voted to consider increasing fees for certain permits/activities for fiscal year 2025.

The Town reviewed Inspectional Services Department fee data from 30 to 35 Massachusetts’ municipalities for the year 2022. The intent of the proposed changes to the fees in this department is to bring Nahant closer to the mean fee rate of this data.

The intention of the proposed increase to the Resident Parking Sticker fee is to generate revenue that will cover the increases of expenses over the past 3 years and the intention of the new format of the fee is to encourage residents to purchase stickers earlier in the year. If approved, the new rate would go into effect January 1, 2025.

Currently, the revenue of Resident Parking Stickers go into the following accounts:  50% general fund revenue, 37.5% recreation revolving revenue, 12.5% sailing revolving revenue. 

The recreation revolving account and the sailing revolving account are used to pay for each summer program, which includes funding salaries, supplies, and other program expenses.  The recreation program has a director and approximately 3 additional employees per year, while the sailing program now had a director and has approximately 16 additional employees per year. 

The increase to minimum wage is the driving factor in the increase of expenses out of these accounts. In 2020, the MA minimum wage was $12.75/hr, in 2021 it increased to $13.50/hr, in 2022 it increased to $14.25/hr, and in 2023 it increased to $15.00/hr.  This represents a 17.6% increase over 3 years. The total salary expenses in the recreation revolving account have increased by 55%, while the total salary expenses in the sailing revolving account have increased by 126%. 

The proposed increase to the Resident Parking Sticker doesn’t account for the total increase in expenses however it would help reduce the reliance on the General Fund to cover the difference.

Below is a list of the fees that the Board is suggesting be increased and also the fee schedule from fiscal year 2024.

If you wish to submit questions or comments regarding the fee schedule and the changes please email Kristin Taylor at ktaylor@nahant.org. by August 16, 2024.

Starting back in June 2024, we began reviewing the fee schedule for fiscal year 2025 and opened up a public comment period. This public comment period will last until August 7th, 2024.

Those that wish to comment can send correspondence to ktaylor@nahant.org August 7th.

Each fiscal year the Board of Selectmen review and vote on the Town’s Master Fee Schedule for the upcoming year.

The fee schedule includes all fees that departments in Town charge for services.

With the conclusion of fiscal year 2024, the Board of Selectmen has voted to consider increasing fees for certain permits/activities for fiscal year 2025.

Before the Board takes the final vote to increase said fees, the Town will have an open comment period for residents up until August 7, 2024.

The Town reviewed Inspectional Services Department fee data from 30 to 35 Massachusetts’ municipalities for the year 2022. The intent of the proposed changes to the fees in this department is to bring Nahant closer to the mean fee rate of this data.

The intention of the proposed increase to the Resident Parking Sticker fee is to generate revenue that will cover the increases of expenses over the past 3 years and the intention of the new format of the fee is to encourage residents to purchase stickers earlier in the year. If approved, the new rate would go into effect January 1, 2025.

Currently, the revenue of Resident Parking Stickers go into the following accounts:  50% general fund revenue, 37.5% recreation revolving revenue, 12.5% sailing revolving revenue. 

The recreation revolving account and the sailing revolving account are used to pay for each summer program, which includes funding salaries, supplies, and other program expenses.  The recreation program has a director and approximately 3 additional employees per year, while the sailing program now had a director and has approximately 16 additional employees per year. 

The increase to minimum wage is the driving factor in the increase of expenses out of these accounts. In 2020, the MA minimum wage was $12.75/hr, in 2021 it increased to $13.50/hr, in 2022 it increased to $14.25/hr, and in 2023 it increased to $15.00/hr.  This represents a 17.6% increase over 3 years. The total salary expenses in the recreation revolving account have increased by 55%, while the total salary expenses in the sailing revolving account have increased by 126%. 

The proposed increase to the Resident Parking Sticker doesn’t account for the total increase in expenses however it would help reduce the reliance on the General Fund to cover the difference.

Below is a list of the fees that the Board is suggesting be increased and also the fee schedule from fiscal year 2024.

Please send all comments or questions to Kristin Taylor at ktaylor@nahant.org by August 07, 2024

Each fiscal year the Board of Selectmen review and vote on the Town’s Master Fee Schedule for the upcoming year.

The fee schedule includes all fees that departments in Town charge for services.

With the conclusion of fiscal year 2024, the Board of Selectmen has voted to consider increasing fees for certain permits/activities for fiscal year 2025.

Before the Board takes the final vote to increase said fees, the Town will have an open comment period for residents up until August 7, 2024.

The Town reviewed Inspectional Services Department fee data from 30 to 35 Massachusetts’ municipalities for the year 2022. The intent of the proposed changes to the fees in this department is to bring Nahant closer to the mean fee rate of this data.

The intention of the proposed increase to the Resident Parking Sticker fee is to generate revenue that will cover the increases of expenses over the past 3 years and the intention of the new format of the fee is to encourage residents to purchase stickers earlier in the year. If approved, the new rate would go into effect January 1, 2025.

Currently, the revenue of Resident Parking Stickers go into the following accounts:  50% general fund revenue, 37.5% recreation revolving revenue, 12.5% sailing revolving revenue. 

The recreation revolving account and the sailing revolving account are used to pay for each summer program, which includes funding salaries, supplies, and other program expenses.  The recreation program has a director and approximately 3 additional employees per year, while the sailing program now had a director and has approximately 16 additional employees per year. 

The increase to minimum wage is the driving factor in the increase of expenses out of these accounts. In 2020, the MA minimum wage was $12.75/hr, in 2021 it increased to $13.50/hr, in 2022 it increased to $14.25/hr, and in 2023 it increased to $15.00/hr.  This represents a 17.6% increase over 3 years. The total salary expenses in the recreation revolving account have increased by 55%, while the total salary expenses in the sailing revolving account have increased by 126%. 

The proposed increase to the Resident Parking Sticker doesn’t account for the total increase in expenses however it would help reduce the reliance on the General Fund to cover the difference.

Below is a list of the fees that the Board is suggesting be increased and also the fee schedule from fiscal year 2024.

Please send all comments or questions to Kristin Taylor at ktaylor@nahant.org by August 07, 2024

The Nahant Housing Sub-committee completed a draft of the Nahant Housing Production Plan (HPP) in October 2023 with the technical support of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC). The draft was published on the Town’s website from October 24th – November 8th for public comment. During this time the plan was also reviewed with Town committees and other Town entities. The plan was revised based on all of the feedback and information that was collected.

The Town is now sharing a redline document of the plan that documents the changes that were made, along with a clean copy of the updated plan. The changes to the plan are also summarized in the bullet points below:

–General updates: details were updated throughout the document based on questions raised by the public and information provided by Town entities such as the Community Preservation Community and the Nahant Housing Authority. These updates are identified within the redlined document.

–Executive summary: the executive summary was updated to include additional detail into areas of interest such as the purpose of the plan, how the plan meets local needs and state requirements, how many Affordable Housing units can be reserved for Nahant residents based on local preference regulations, and details concerning key recommendations and opportunity sites.

–Areas eligible for 3A zoning: the plan now clarifies areas that are eligible for zoning that would comply with state law M.G.L. Chapter 40A, Section 3A. For more information about 3A see the housing key terms (Page 8), executive summary (Page 14), and development constraints sections (Page 52) of the plan.

–Country club site: the Country Club site has been identified as a potential housing development opportunity site along with nine other sites where the Town may encourage housing development (See Pages 76 and 80). It is now recommended that the green space and tennis courts on this site be preserved, if the property owners choose to redevelop the other portion of the site. This decision, as with all privately-owned sites, is entirely up to the property owner.

–Coast guard site: the draft plan had specific recommendations for the Coast Guard site. Based on input from the public and Town entities, considerations for this site are now considered as a part of recommendation 4 concerning possibilities for publicly-owned sites to be consistent with how other publicly-owned sites are treated. The unique history of the Coast Guard site is still documented in the housing opportunities chapter (Pages 82-84).

To be transparent about the changes that were made based on the input received, the Town is posting a redline and clean copy of the updated plan in the documents below. This is a notification of the changes that have been made. The public is free to provide additional feedback, however this document will be sent to the Nahant Board of Selectmen and Nahant Planning Board for their consideration. If additional edits to the plan are made, they will be requested by these boards as the responsible entities for adopting the plan.

The Public Comment Period runs from April 5, 2024 through April 19, 2024. The public is encouraged to provide their written feedback to the Housing Production Advisory Sub-committee at HPAC@nahant.org

Updated Nahant HPP Clean Report

Updated Nahant HPP Redline Revisions