Land Bank acquires new Chappy property
By Nelson Sigelman
Published: December 31, 2008
The Martha's Vineyard Land Bank Monday announced the purchase Friday of 22 acres along Quammox Road on Chappaquiddick in Edgartown. The sellers were Dick and Laura Chasin, the price $2.1 million.
James Lengyel, Land Bank executive director, said the property includes six building lots that will now not be developed. "It was a very good price," said Mr. Lengyel.
The public land conservation agency received something of a Christmas present that made the deal even better. The Chappaquiddick Open Space Fund donated $250,000 to the Land Bank to help with the purchase of the property. That reduced the Land Bank's cost to $1,850,000, said Mr. Lengyel.
The new property will be known as the Quammox Preserve. In a property description provided to The Martha's Vineyard Times, Mr. Lengyel said it varies geologically as it moves north from a 550-foot long Katama Bay beach, to a grass-ringed salt-pond, to the southwesterly slope of the Washaqua Hill.
"The Quammox Preserve fits a pattern which the land bank has often seen," wrote Mr. Lengyel in a press release. "Sometimes it takes decades to conserve a property. The Weahtaqua Springs Preserve in Oak Bluffs was created after 13 years of effort; it took 16 for the Land Bank to purchase the
last remaining undeveloped property abutting the Felix Neck Sanctuary in Edgartown. In the case of the Quammox Preserve, the Land Bank's first communication with the family was made in 1988."
Mr. Lengyel said the Land Bank is grateful to the Chasin family and the Chappaquiddick Open Space Fund and its donors for making the transaction happen. As with all Land Bank purchases, the property will remain closed until there is an approved management plan.
The Land Bank is a public agency funded through a two-percent surcharge on real estate transactions. The more than 2,876 acres the Land Bank owns is open to the public for a variety of recreational purposes.
