The smell of fresh asphalt and the sounds of heavy machinery were in the air last Tuesday morning as a steady parade of contractors rolled into the entrance at The Preserve at the Woodlands in Oak Bluffs. The long-dormant subdivision now springing to life was one of the keys to resolving a pitched land use battle over plans to build a new golf club within a 300 acre swath of undeveloped property, now known as the Southern Woodlands.
A two-acre sandy crater, envisioned as a pond in the center of a long-abandoned plan for an equestrian-themed subdivision, and two model homes that are being resurrected after years of neglect were the last remaining remnants of the subdivision’s earlier incarnation as South Woods Farm.
Project manager Richard Combra was an Oak Bluffs selectman in the late 90s when the first attempt was made to turn the land into a golf course. The Times met with him last Tuesday as he was supervising finishing touches on the property.
“The pond will be lined and filled in about a month,” he said. “The well that will fill the pond and be used for irrigation is up and running. All of the infrastructure is in, electric, water, conduits for cable and internet are all completed. Things are happening here now.”
Mr. Combra said 24 of the 26 lots went on sale on August 1. The two former model homes will be renovated and sold at whatever price the market will bear. “There’s been a lot of interest,” Mr. Combra said. “We have one lot under agreement, and we’re negotiating on two lots. Right now, there are 22 lots for sale.”
Parcels range in size from just under four acres to just under two acres; prices range from $450,000 to $600,000. Those prices will go up on Sept. 15.
The Preserve at the Woodlands homeowners association requires houses to be a minimum 3,500 square feet. Per the permit granted by the Oak Bluffs planning board, there will be a maximum of 156 bedrooms — down from the 190 maximum on the previous permit — which translates to a six-bedroom maximum per house.
Owners will also be required to install enhanced nitrogen mitigation to guarantee a limit of 19 milligrams of nitrogen per liter, per year. Mr. Combra is also a realtor with Point B Realty, the exclusive agency for The Preserve at the Woodlands.
Currently Mr. Combra said one of his biggest challenges is changing the habits of local dog owners. “It’s been vacant so long, some people have made it into a dog park,” he said. “We have a lot of trucks and heavy machinery running around, it’s not safe for the dogs. I also have prospective clients looking at lots, I don’t want a dog latching on to someone.”
A few minutes after Mr. Combra uttered that sentence, the driver of a large three-axle dump truck had to slam the brakes to avoid a ball-chasing dog.
Long time coming
The saga of The Preserve at the Woodlands began late in the last millennium when, in 1998, a golf course development group signed an option to purchase the 88-acre Webb’s Camping Area off Barnes Road, which had been for sale for more than a decade.
When their efforts stalled, Corey Kupersmith, a wealthy golf enthusiast and pharmacy entrepreneur from Greenwich, Conn., took over and kept adding acreage until he owned some 280 acres. His dream was to build The Down Island Golf Club, an 18-hole golf course. He offered a benefit package he thought would be eagerly embraced, including public walking trails, payments in lieu of taxes, an offer to lease a portion of the former Webb’s Camping Area to the town at no cost for camping, reduced Island memberships, and a permanent conservation restriction over the entire property.
In March 2005, capping years of fierce controversy over Mr. Kupersmith’s various development proposals — which included the Martha’s Vineyard Commission’s rejection of three successive applications, and numerous lawsuits filed against the commission — the Land Bank, Mr. Kupersmith, and the MVC concluded a deal under which Mr. Kupersmith agreed to sell 190 acres of the Southern Woodlands to the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank for $18.6 million, contingent on MVC approval of his subdivision.
The luxury housing development was intended to bridge the financial gap between what the Land Bank was willing to pay — that is, approximately $100,000 per acre — and Mr. Kupersmith’s asking price of $26 million.
The agreement included a provision under which the Land Bank would swap a 24-acre rectangular town-owned lot, known as the “doughnut hole” because it was landlocked, for “more convenient acreage located elsewhere in the Southern Woodlands, contingent on town meeting approval.”
Despite a 2004 written agreement, the land swap has yet to happen.
Construction on the subdivision began with two model homes, but was halted after Mr. Kupersmith’s financial foundation fell apart. In 2012, Farlap Development Corp., the original development company controlled by Mr. Kupersmith, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
The land laid dormant for 11 years. The two unfinished model homes were vandalized and left open to the elements.
In June 2015, Paul Adamson, a Boston-area developer and Edgartown homeowner, bought the property with two partners for $5,150,000 at auction. Oak Bluffs seasonal homeowner Chris Sage, one of the partners in the purchase, is the son-in-law of Richard Combra. Mr. Combra said he heard about the sale and introduced Paul Adamson, a close family friend, to the property and Mr. Adamson liked what he saw.
However, the ensuing permitting process was not smooth.
Soon after the sale, the Oak Bluffs planning board decided the subdivision permit granted Mr. Kupersmith over a decade ago was outdated and that the permitting process had to begin anew.
After a series of negotiations, the planning board won some major concessions that included an increase in the donation to the Oak Bluffs affordable housing trust from $260,000 to $700,000; a reduction of total number of bedrooms from 190 to 156; and enhanced nitrogen mitigation. Buffer zones were also extended in some areas, and ancient ways were restored.
On April 5, Geoghan Coogan, attorney for Mr. Adamson, delivered two checks, totaling over $1.15 million, to Oak Bluffs town hall — one for almost $450,000 in back taxes owed by Mr. Kupersmith’s now defunct Farlap Development Company, and a $700,000 check to the Oak Bluffs Affordable Housing Trust. With that payment a chapter closed on one of the Vineyard’s more contentious land use battles.
