MVC schedule is full as Island projects undergo DRI reviews

By Janet Hefler - March 29, 2007

Plans for expansion at Cronig's Market and the Oyster Bar and Grill restaurant, and new buildings for the Vineyard Haven Yacht Club and YMCA top the Martha's Vineyard Commission's (MVC) agenda next month.

Those projects, as well as several others in the works, will undergo review as developments of regional impact (DRI) through a process that includes pre-public hearing reviews before the Land Use Planning Committee (LUPC) as well as public hearings, deliberations, and decisions by the full commission. Below is a preview of some projects and their progress:

Cronig's Market, Tisbury. Owner Steve Bernier plans to close in the porch on the front of Cronig's, add on to the back of the building, remodel the interior, and rearrange the parking lot. The footprint of the store will increase by 1,365 square feet (sq. ft.) and the sales floor by 2,740 sq. ft. Changing from a herring-bone configuration to perpendicular parking spaces will add eight spaces and create islands at the end of each aisle in which trees could be planted.

Mr. Bernier met with the LUPC on March 12, at which time he agreed to a suggestion by MVC water resource planner Bill Wilcox to upgrade the store's septic system to a denitrifying waste treatment system. MVC traffic planner Jim Miller recommended waiving a traffic study, which the LUPC approved. Following a public hearing at 7:30 pm on April 12, a post-hearing review with the LUPC is tentatively scheduled for April 23 and the commission's deliberations and decision on April 26.

18 State Road, Tisbury. The LUPC held a pre-public hearing review last Monday regarding proposed plans by property owner Sylvestro Schiavone for the construction of a new 2,200-sq.-ft. mixed-used building behind the Belushi Pisano Gallery at his property on 18 State Road. The building would contain office and storage space in the basement and a small apartment for Mr. Schiavone. The Wampanoag Tribal historic protection officer requested that an archaeological study be done, as artifacts found at the site in the past show evidence of human habitation dating back to 8,000 B.C. A public hearing is set for April 12.

Middle Line Path affordable housing project, Chilmark. At town meeting last year Chilmark residents approved building six residential home site units and six rental units in a nine-building affordable housing complex on 21 acres of land. The town will retain land ownership with ground leases for the six residential home sites.

The 21 acres will be subdivided into seven lots, with the seventh lot remaining as one big lot containing the rental units. The housing units will be grouped in three clusters, each with a duplex unit in the middle and two residential home sites, preserving 60 to 80 percent of the property's open space.

Chilmark also included another 48 acres of conservation-restricted land owned by the town in the DRI application, bringing the total to 69 acres. This figures into plans to handle the housing complex's wastewater and nitrogen-loading limits in the watershed area where it is located. A pre-public hearing review with the LUPC is tentatively scheduled for April 2, followed by a public hearing on May 10.

Oyster Bar and Grill restaurant, Oak Bluffs. The MVC continues a public hearing on April 5 that began on March 15 regarding a proposal to demolish most of the existing Oyster Bar building and build a three-story facility with a function hall, apartments for employees, and a basement, in addition to the restaurant. After reviewing the project, the Oak Bluffs Historic Commission did not designate the building as historic, after a recent 3 to 3 split vote.

A post-public hearing review is tentatively scheduled with the LUPC on April 23, followed by the full commission's deliberation and decision on April 26, pending the conclusion of the public hearing.

Vineyard Haven Yacht Club. The LUPC reviewed plans by the yacht club to demolish its old clubhouse and construct a new 4,400-sq.-ft. two-story building at a meeting on March 12. The yacht club has occupied the site since 1928. The original two-story clubhouse was torn down in the 1960's and replaced with the existing one-story cape building. Currently the club has about 350 memberships and does not plan to increase membership at this time. A public hearing date has not been set.

YMCA, Oak Bluffs. Following a site visit on April 9, the LUPC will begin a pre-public hearing review of the YMCA's proposal for building a new 40,000-sq.-ft. facility on Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road, across the street from the regional high school on five acres of land next to the MV Ice Arena and behind the skate park. The Y has signed a lease on the land, owned by the school, in exchange for 356 hours of access per year to its competition-sized swimming pool in its new facility, as the equivalent of rent.

Phase one of the building will include an indoor aquatic center with a competition-length swimming pool and connecting family pool, a wellness center with an adjoining dance/aerobics studio, a teen center, a child watch area, an outdoor play and camp area, and a café.

Representatives of the Y also have been working on a "campus planning project" with the MVC and other owners of property located along the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road corridor near the high school, with an eye towards linking facilities together through shared parking, pathways, and landscaping.

A public hearing on the YMCA project is tentatively scheduled for May 3.

The MVC's web site, www.mvcommission.org, includes a DRI status report, as well as a calendar of scheduled meetings and hearings, updated weekly. Many calendar listings also contain links to MVC staff reports, meeting and hearing minutes, correspondence and other documents related to a particular DRI. The LUPC and MVC hold meetings and hearings at the Stone Building on New York Avenue in Oak Bluffs.