Goals should chart the course

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To the Editor:

I urge all members of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission and the Island at large, to read:   Island Plan, Charting the Future of the Vineyard. Here is the comprehensive goal taken directly from the plan: Make Martha’s Vineyard a more sustainable, resilient, diverse, balanced, stable, and self- sufficient community, preserving the Island’s unique natural, rural, and historical character and creating a better future for Vineyarders and the Island itself.

Use the Island and manage its development in ways that are compatible with the long-term sustainability and carrying capacities of our natural resources and community.

There are 16 overall goals. I urge everyone to read them.

There is a reason the Commission has struggled with proposal DRI 89-M3 all these months.  It doesn’t fit. Everyone agrees Stop & Shop needs a renovation, but it does not need to be massive. It is beyond comprehension that the Police Department, Post Office, Cumberland Farms, Stop & Shop, Steamship Authority, Travel Information booth, Black Dog store and restaurant, car rental shop, bike rental shop, Chamber of Commerce (apologies to those not listed) all surround Five Corners. Importantly, the Vineyard Transit Authority has a major hub in this area. No one can reasonably conceive they can seamlessly coexist in the long, hot dog days of summer.

Also, Star Market/Shaw’s/New England went through major renovations five years ago, but now they are scaling back. The stores grew too big — it was no longer quick to run in to pick something up, so customers went elsewhere. This bodes well for Island merchants.

It behooves the commissioners to read the Martha’s Vineyard Commission mission statement and the Island Plan, adopted in 2009. I trust concerned Islanders will read them too. I beg you to do what’s right for this Island.

Pamela S. Brock

Tisbury