The Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC) must not let the perfect be the enemy of the good when it resumes its deliberations over the North Bluff seawall project. There is no good reason to stall this plan — currently scheduled to be completed in June 2016 — and risk the loss of $5.6 million in state funding, money that many other seafront communities would be more than happy to put to good use.
The Oak Bluffs planning board referred the project to the MVC last month for review as a development of regional impact (DRI), a process which is the Island’s permitting equivalent of running the gauntlet. Planning board members cited a lack of public input for their decision to push for MVC review, as well as concerns that the project would unnecessarily sacrifice a valuable town beach.
This project has been discussed for some time. Planning board members might have made their referral back in June, rather than act several weeks after selectmen unanimously voted to accept a $4.9 million bid from Weymouth-based Northern Construction Service to complete the work.
There is reason to believe that more might have been done to inform the public about changes to the project. But to be fair, the project has been in the works since 2008, and Oak Bluffs leaders most involved may have erroneously thought others were on board.
As reporter Barry Stringfellow reports this week (“MVC poised to resume public hearing on North Bluff seawall overhaul”), at the MVC public hearing last week, speakers raised a number of concerns over the loss of beachfront and the aesthetics of the steel that would be used to buttress the eroding bluff. One former Oak Bluffs selectman, in a flight of hyperbole, said the project would amount to a “catastrophic loss of a town beach.”
The notion that the modest strip of gravel and sand sandwiched between the new public fishing pier and the harbor jetty, which has eroded greatly over the years from natural forces in play along the entire coastline, ought to be the starting point of the discussion misses the big picture. The catastrophe awaiting Oak Bluffs is the potential loss of the entire bank and its crumbling concrete retaining wall.
In a letter dated Nov. 20 addressed to MVC executive director Adam Turner, Carlos G. Pena, vice president of CLE Engineering, said, “The existing concrete seawall and coastal bank are in failed condition and subject to collapse during a major coastal storm event. The loss of the seawall and coastal bank would imperil public facilities, infrastructure, and private residences and businesses along Sea View Avenue extension.”
The North Bluff seawall project would shore up the eroding bank with steel sheets, a method described as far more stable than concrete, and provide a timber boardwalk from the SSA terminal to Oak Bluffs Harbor. The boardwalk would be a fitting complement to the new restrooms, public fishing pier, and boatline terminal, and in keeping with the strolling atmosphere of the Oak Bluffs waterfront.
Last week, veteran MVC member Linda Sibley of West Tisbury told Mr. Pena that the holidays would likely push the review process into January. That would be unfortunate.
Oak Bluffs officials have given their assurance that plans are in the works to replenish the beach. It may be possible that no amount of sand deposited along the bluff will ever be enough to restore this section of beach. Irrespective, Oak Bluffs faces equally significant challenges a short walk south of the SSA terminal to maintain a far more popular and well-visited stretch of public beach.
Mr. Pena, a well-respected civil engineer, has described why sheet steel is the preferred option to bolster the bank. Place confidence in the man hired to do the job, or find someone else.
Oak Bluffs leaders, including members of the planning board and abutters, ought to put their disagreements on hold and press the MVC to approve this project Thursday night so it can proceed on schedule. The end result will be a vast improvement over the current situation that would provide the North Bluff with a level of protection now absent.
There will still be time to hash out what can be done to improve the beach, knowing that at least in the short term the bluffs are protected.
