The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank Commission held an open session on Monday seeking public comment on its properties and management plans. The meeting was held at the Vineyard Transit Authority second floor office at the airport business park.
One person attended: Bill Straw of Vineyard Haven, who suggested the land bank move up on its priority list the acquisition of properties that help in the movement of people along the side of roads, for example bicycle paths.
In a clear sign of a cooling real estate market here, revenues at the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank fell in 2007 for the second straight calendar year. The total number of real estate transactions also was down last year, for the third year in a row.
The land bank collected $10.9 million in revenues in 2007, compared with $11.6 million in 2006, a drop of seven per cent.
And the land bank recorded 1,403 real estate transactions in 2007, a drop of five per cent from the previous year, when 1,474 transactions were recorded.
A rolling meadow that has been used for sheep grazing off State Road in Tisbury will be protected thanks to the purchase of a conservation restriction by the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank.
The land bank commission announced on Tuesday that it has signed a contract to buy a restriction on seven acres owned by Kristen Kingsbury Henshaw. The purchase price is $301,000. The field is located about .2 miles from the land bank’s Tisbury Meadow Preserve.
The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank added a small but significant piece of land to its holdings at the scenic Gay Head Cliffs this week with the purchase of a single acre near the historic clay cliffs in the westernmost reaches of the Vineyard. The seller was the Vineyard Open Land Foundation. The purchase price was $225,000.
The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank envisions a new campground as part of its management plan for its 234-acre Southern Woodlands Preserve. Dan Feeney, the owner of the Vineyard’s only currently operating campground, envisages problems with that.
At Tuesday night’s public hearing to consider the draft management plan, Mr. Feeney emerged as the only person with significant objections to it.
The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank has signed a contract to purchase 41.1 acres on Chappaquiddick, including some 900 feet of shoreline on Cape Pogue Bay.
The acquisition will be added to its existing Three Ponds Reservation, bringing the total contiguous land area to 357.7 acres.
In an announcement on Monday, the land bank said the land, at the end of Jeffers Lane, would cost $4.95 million. The sellers are Judith Self Murphy, E. Baldwin Self Jr. and Karen Self Osler.
After a turbulent decade in the housing market, the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank is reporting a second relatively flat year of revenue, perhaps indicating that the market is climbing onto steadier ground.
Land bank executive director James Lengyel said this week that revenues are expected to be down about seven per cent for fiscal year while transactions are up about three per cent.
“The numbers speak for themselves,” Mr. Lengyel said, calling them “essentially flat.”
The five women range in age from 66 to 84, and their goal is to hike every single one of the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank walking trails. Thus far they have checked off twenty of them, even repeating a few favorites.
Last Sunday the women allowed this reporter to join their hike. We met at 9 a.m. in the parking lot of the Up-Island Cronig’s. The temperature that morning was 29 degrees.
