Martha's Vineyard may have an affordable housing crisis on its hands, but it also has the community support and political will to address the issue.
And if the Island's many grassroots housing organizations cooperate in their present efforts and continue to experiment with new ones, the crisis in the long run could change the Vineyard for the better.
Market forces continue to outpace efforts on the Vineyard to create
affordable rental and permanent housing.
Further, housing advocates say that while some people who could not
find housing in 2001 may have left the Vineyard, those who stayed likely
have watched the gap widen between the wages they earn and the houses
they hope to buy.
Community Preservation Comes Before Taxpayers at Annual Town Meeting
By JAMES KINSELLA Gazette Senior Writer
Abbe Burt looks at initiatives such as the Community Preservation
Act and the Community Housing Bank, and sees important ways of
addressing the Vineyard's lack of affordable housing.
Richard Combra, an Oak Bluffs selectman, looks at the same
initiatives and sees another tax on Island residents.
Weighing the pressing need for affordable housing over its other planning principles, the Martha's Vineyard Commission early this morning approved with heavy conditions an unusual 11-unit subdivision in the rural outposts of Edgartown.
"This is really a referendum on us as a community. If we can't find a way to provide homes for our working-class residents, then we fail," said commissioner Chris Murphy of Chilmark. "The results of this project are damn good. I think the applicant should be proud, and we should be proud."
Debate over the Supreme Court justice nominee John G. Roberts raged
in Chilmark. Dinner guests sat in awe as Patricia Neal recited her
Hollywood Walk of Fame address on Edgartown harbor. And couples danced
the night away to the cabaret music of Eric Comstock and Barbara Fasano
in Lambert's Cove.
A tight-knit community of family farmhouses in the wooded hills off
Tabor House Road. Homes that optimize their surrounding landscape and
maximize exposure to the sun. A rambling stone wall surrounded by
daffodils.
These are the images the Chilmark housing committee will introduce
to town residents next week as part of a new conceptual design and
feasibility report on the Middle Line Road project, the town-proposed
affordable housing development.
A Massachusetts Land Court judge last week solidly denied a motion
for reconsideration from a group of neighbors who are trying to fight
three affordable one-acre homesites on Chappaquiddick.
Edgartown town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport yesterday said the ruling
- which directly rejected a series of claims made by the
neighbors' attorney - speaks volumes about the nature of the
case.
Morgan Woods affordable housing development in Edgartown on Martha’s Vineyard has won the 2008 Urban Land Institute’s J. Ronald Terwilliger Workforce Housing Models of Excellence Award.
The award recognizes exemplary developments that meet workforce housing needs in high cost communities. Entries are judged on specific criteria including: extent of affordability, involvement of public/private partnership, energy cost savings, green construction and innovative building technologies that reduce cost and improve efficiency.
Despite continued pressure from some Edgartown officials, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission on Thursday stood firmly behind its previous decision to hold a public hearing on a request from the developers of the Field Club in Katama to pay $1.8 million to the town instead of designating three lots on their property for affordable housing.
After an hour of emotionally charged debate, the commission voted 10-3 to hold the hearing.
The developers for the upscale Field Club and adjoining subdivision in Katama have agreed to pay the Edgartown affordable housing committee $1.8 million in lieu of designating three lots in their project for affordable housing as required by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.
The project was approved as a development of regional impact (DRI) in 2004 and calls for the construction of a 32-lot subdivision on the 24-acre site as well as a members-only recreational club. Club owners plan to sell 500 memberships for about $100,000 apiece.
