Updated 3:30 pm, Wednesday
The Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC) last Thursday unanimously approved the $5.6 million North Bluffs seawall project — a corrugated steel seawall and boardwalk that will run from Oak Bluffs Harbor to the public fishing pier.
Construction is due to start this week, beginning with the installation of fencing, according to project manager David Lager of Lexington-based Netco. “Materials and equipment are being delivered to the Island by Tisbury Towing,” Mr. Lager wrote in an email Friday. He added that despite a series of delays, it will be “no problem” to have the project completed by June 30.
MVC approval came with two minor conditions regarding lighting and landscaping, and followed two public hearings before the full commission, two Land Use Planning Committee (LUPC) meetings, and nearly a month of public comment and debate. Throughout the process, the project has had the strong support of the majority of selectmen and the conservation commission (ConCom).
Commissioners acknowledged the aesthetic concerns raised repeatedly, and sometimes heatedly, over the use of a steel seawall by Oak Bluffs residents at the two public hearings; however, they were in concert that the project, which is intended to protect the eroding bank, should move ahead.
“Aesthetics are subjective,” Linda Sibley, longtime commissioner from West Tisbury, said. “We should acknowledge there are a significant number of people who don’t like the look; still, we feel the benefits outweigh the detriments.”
“We struggled with aesthetics, but necessity outweighs it,” commissioner Kathy Newman of Aquinnah said.
Oak Bluffs commissioner John Breckenridge pointed out that Oak Bluffs Harbor is already buttressed by a corrugated steel wall.
“It’s the same in Menemsha,” Leonard Jason, commissioner representing Dukes County, said. ”I don’t see it as a detriment.”
Fred Hancock of Oak Bluffs, hearing chairman, summed up his views regarding the aesthetics and the impact of the project on abutters by alluding to the possible consequences of inaction. “We thought the biggest impact was keeping [Seaview Avenue] from falling in,” he said. Mr. Hancock also said the commission felt the boardwalk will look better than the current dirt path, and that it will provide a safe, lighted walkway from the harbor to the fishing pier.
At a previous public hearing, project engineer Carlos Pena said that the fishing pier was designed to connect to the boardwalk and will be made of the same materials. He said the choice of corrugated steel over a concrete wall rested on cost savings, expedience, and reduced vulnerability to weather during construction, since concrete cannot be poured in cold winter temperatures.
Mr. Hancock said there was also a substantial benefit to the town taxpayers. “Far from being a burden to taxpayers, it fixes a problem with [state] grants,” he said. “That’s a very serious benefit.”
Former Oak Bluffs selectman Kerry Scott, an outspoken opponent of the project, tried several times to interject, but Mr. Hancock sternly reminded her that it was not a public hearing.
Procedural debate
Before the final vote, commissioners engaged in a long deliberation about improving the DRI process, and how to avoid a repeat of the rushed nature of the North Bluff seawall hearings in the future.
“I think this [approval] proves the necessity of DRI criteria and of the MVC, because if we didn’t exist, there would have been no discussion,” Abe Seiman, commissioner from Oak Bluffs, said. “We saw a lot anger from the public because they felt left out. Towns should remember to keep the public advised. That said, responsibility also rests with Oak Bluffs townspeople. They don’t come to meetings, and they don’t vote. This should serve as a warning: People need to pay attention to what’s going on if they want to have a say.”
“There had been plenty of hearings; you can’t make it sound like there weren’t hearings,” commissioner James Joyce of Edgartown said. “The public didn’t come alive until the end.”
“This had a lot of things in common with the roundabout,” Mr. Jason of Chilmark said, referring to the 10-year pitched battle that preceded the construction of the roundabout at the intersection of Barnes Road and Edgartown–West Tisbury Road. “I don’t think the conservation commission or the selectmen were trying to pull one over. I think they were doing what’s best for the town.”
Mr. Jason suggested a memorandum of understanding (MOU) be attached to the decision calling for permit-granting authorities in Oak Bluffs and the MVC to provide more time for deliberations, “so we don’t feel like we’re under the gun in the 11th hour trying to make a decision.”
Mr. Hancock said he agreed in principle with Mr. Jason, but that an internal procedural change could not be attached to a single DRI decision. “I don’t see how we can compel town boards to meet with each other, or to meet with us,” he said.
Mr. Hancock said that MVC executive director Adam Turner was already addressing the issue, and has been actively meeting with town boards since joining the MVC in August.
Mr. Joyce said he agreed with Mr. Jason, but only in spirit. “We have to decide on what’s in front of us,” he said.
“I want to thank the Oak Bluffs planning board for sending it to us,” Ms. Sibley said. “If this doesn’t have regional impact, I don’t know what does. It was a big part of the problem to come in so late in the game. I think with more time, we could have made it a better project.”
Ms. Sibley added that clarifying the DRI checklist, a task currently underway, will also help smooth out the permitting process.
The commission agreed to work, in conjunction with Mr. Turner, on an MOU between the MVC and town permitting authorities that presses for public participation in the early stages of deliberation, before a project comes before the MVC, when a town is the applicant.
Following the North Bluff vote, Mr. Hancock spoke to opponents of the project. “Just because we didn’t agree, doesn’t mean we didn’t listen,” he said.
Oak Bluffs town administrator Robert Whritenour praised the MVC vote. He said he, along with planning board chairman Brian Packish, ConCom chairman Joan Hughes, and two selectmen, had met earlier in the day to plan a public outreach campaign on beach nourishment — a topic often raised during the hearings. “Hopefully we’ll have a stronger partnership,” he said. “And we look forward to hearing from you folks as well.”
Fits and starts
The MVC Jan. 7 vote marks the end of an eight-year permitting and funding process for the crumbling redoubt. Initial engineering studies for the North Bluff seawall were begun shortly after the Pay Beach seawall collapsed in 2008. The town applied to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) after the seawall was further damaged by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, but after years of to-and-fro with a rotating lineup of FEMA engineers, town officials instead looked to, and successfully lobbied, the state for $5.6 million in state funding — $3.6 million from the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) dam and seawall fund, and $2 million from the state Seaport Advisory Council — which was approved in June.
In September, FEMA awarded the town $113,000 from the Hurricane Sandy Relief Fund.
When Oak Bluffs selectmen unanimously voted on Sept. 22 to accept a $5.25 million bid from Westborough-based MIG Corp., contingent on additional Community Preservation Committee (CPC) funding, it appeared that the much-anticipated project was finally moving ahead.
However, due to a complaint from the second-place bidder, Weymouth-based Northern Construction Service, citing ambiguous wording in the Request for Proposals (RFP), Oak Bluffs selectmen, on the advice of the state attorney general’s office and town counsel Michael Goldsmith, voted to rebid the project.
On Oct. 28, selectmen accepted a new bid from Northern Construction for $4.9 million, saving the town roughly $270,000 from the previously accepted bid.
But in another twist, the reversal sparked litigation from MIG Corp., which sought a preliminary injunction against the town for bid-law violations. A Middlesex Superior Court judge found in favor of the town on Oct. 15.
Then, on Nov. 12, the Oak Bluffs planning board, in a unanimous 4-0 vote, referred the North Bluff seawall/boardwalk project to the MVC as a DRI. Board members cited a lack of public input for their decision, as well as concerns that the project would unnecessarily sacrifice a valuable town beach.
At the first MVC hearing, held on Dec. 10, several commissioners agreed with opponents of the project that the schematic side-view drawings and the artistic front elevation rendering, which showed the seawall from a distance, lacked detail. Carlos Pena, project engineer from CLE Engineering, was asked to return with detailed, “Photoshopped” renderings — the proposed seawall/boardwalk overlaid on an actual photo of the bluff.
At the second public hearing on Dec. 17, a majority of the commissioners still thought that Mr. Pena’s renderings did not give an accurate representation of the finished project. Mr. Whritenour implored the commissioners to approve the project quickly, reminding them that both grants could be lost if the project was not completed, or close to it, by June 30, 2016.
“Sometimes in the language, we lose the enormity of what’s at stake,” Mr. Whritenour said. “There are extraordinarily serious implications on the bluff if the seawall is not constructed. The consequences if that seawall collapses are beyond our comprehension. We simply can’t let that happen.”
