For 30 years it has been the Island’s best-kept secret.

And today Island Elderly Housing (IEH) also remains one of the Island’s best success stories, thanks in part to the original founders, Margaret Love, Marguerite Bergstrom and Carol Lashnits, who had a strong and far-sighted vision of what was needed for not only the elder citizens of the Vineyard, but for its disabled population as well.

A quarter century ago, an elderly woman lived in an unwinterized house on Lambert's Cove Road with no running water and no car. Every day, she walked into town for water. In the Camp Ground in Oak Bluffs, many seniors confined themselves to one room in the winter because their uninsulated homes were too expensive to heat. Countless more Island elders were doing the Vineyard shuffle along with the young people, moving twice a year between summer and winter rentals.

In a surprise vote late last night, the Martha's Vineyard Commission narrowly failed to approve plans by Island Elderly Housing for a five-unit apartment building for low-income elderly on their Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road property in Tisbury.

Commissioners stopped short of a vote to deny Hillside Village III, deferring the decision for further discussion at the MVC's next meeting Thursday.