West Tisbury selectmen hosted another standing-room-only crowd last week. The main item of business on the June 8 agenda was a forceful letter opposing plans by the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival (MVFF) board of directors to acquire the 12.5-acre Cynthia Walsh property at 694 Old County Road, in the center of West Tisbury’s historic district, to construct a campus.
The MVFF, a nonprofit group that hosts a variety of art events and film screenings around the Island, has set out to raise $2 million to purchase the farmland and renovate the 1830s house on the property. The closing date for the $1.4 million land purchase is June 22.
“Nice to see you all two weeks in a row,” chairman Richard Knabel joyfully told the packed house. “I think we have to figure out how to keep doing this, because it’s nice to have an audience — more participation, anyway.”
The previous week, residents had turned out in force to speak against the MVFF concept, which has yet to be fully solidified.
“Next up on our hit parade today is a proposed letter to the Martha’s Vineyard Film Festival board of directors,” Mr. Knabel said. “A week ago we were over at the Howes House, and we had a full house there, standing room only and people sitting on the floor actually, people who came to us with their concerns about the proposed move of the film festival to the Walsh property on Old County Road, and also a request by people that selectmen express ourselves about that proposed move.”
Mr. Knabel said he had drafted a letter.
“I read it on my phone without my glasses, but I got the gist of it,” selectman Jeffrey “Skipper” Manter said.
“This letter is from our board to the board of the film festival, who, as we do, have a fiduciary role — an obligation to the public trust,” selectman Cynthia Mitchell said. “The boards of nonprofits represent the community, and as such, need to pay very close attention when the public speaks. I think Richard has done a fine job.”
Ms. Mitchell said at the moment the letter was not available to the public, but Mr. Knabel read the letter aloud. It was addressed to the eight members of the board of directors and executive director Thomas Bena.
“We write in the spirit of communication and cooperation as one board to another,” Mr. Knabel said. He lauded the work of the organization and said its desire to “establish a permanent home or a headquarters for the festival is quite understandable.”
Mr. Knabel then went on to express the concerns of town leaders: “As we understand the broad outlines of relocation plans, as they have been revealed in the planning board minutes, the Island newspapers, and your website, they are of such a scale as to be beyond all reasonable limits and capacities that could coexist in the long-established peaceable rural neighborhoods that surround the Walsh parcels,” he said.
Mr. Knabel said the property was part of the historic district and the heart of West Tisbury village. He also highlighted the outpouring of opposition, saying, “As board members we all have responsibilities individually and collectively, fiduciary and otherwise, both to our supporters and to the community at large. We ask only that your board considers not only our concerns, but those expressed by the community, and assesses the impact of the small rural setting as well as the community trust that your board and your organization could easily and irretrievably lose.”
He also hinted at the long and arduous road of permitting ahead, which would include a trip to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission: “Of no lesser concern to your board may be the diversion and distraction of resources to your organization that a lengthy regulatory process could produce. We believe that all of this is avoidable.”
At the conclusion of the letter, those in the room applauded. Mr. Manter thanked Mr. Knabel for taking the time to write a compassionate letter.
“I started to write one, but yours was much better, and I wouldn’t have been able to read mine in a public meeting,” Mr. Manter said to audience chuckles.
Mr. Manter suggested adding some specifics about the kinds of concerns that the community has, such as the size of the building, the added cars, the increased traffic, to name a few.
“Easily done,” Mr. Knabel said.
More suggestions followed. “I think the simplicity of this is important,” Ms. Mitchell said. In the end, it was decided to keep it simple.
Mr. Bena and MVFF officials have repeatedly said they want to work with the community on a plan. But several of those who spoke expressed little willingness to talk about anything.
“I think, without presupposing anything, and without appearing to decide on behalf of the town, the letter very clearly conveys the board’s wish to communicate to the film festival board that they pay very close attention to the outcry and numerous comments,” selectman Cynthia Mitchell said.
Selectmen unanimously approved the letter with slight modifications and agreed to get it out “ASAP.”