The Martha’s Vineyard Commission has joined the Island workforce housing movement by purchasing a property on Tia Anna Lane in Oak Bluffs to provide housing to its employees.
During a short meeting Thursday night, chairman Jim Vercruysse said the commission was able to purchase the property with equity from its main building on New York Avenue in Oak Bluffs.
“The budget numbers worked out better than we had hoped,” Vercruysse said. “We hope to provide more housing for more staff as we can afford it, but this is a good start. It’s a pretty exciting thing. I think this is a really good thing for the commission to take this property out of the speculative housing market and into workforce housing.”
The three-bedroom, two-bathroom home was purchased to provide workforce housing for commission employees. It is within walking distance of the Lagoon. There is also room on the property for a second structure, if the commission decides to build one.
The lease agreement is in place, but a more “tailored” lease is still being finalized, according to commissioner E. Douglas Sederholm. The lease states the occupant must be an employee of the commission.
Commission executive director Adam Turner and his family will occupy the home. The commission will subsidize the home — which does not fall under an affordable housing restriction — at $325 a month. The lease requires the occupant to pay 30 percent of their income for rent.
“I’m happy. It’s going to make me more stable, my family more stable,” Turner told the Times in a phone conversation.
In other business, the commission approved an expansion review that adds three more tables and five outdoor seats to the 19 Raw Oyster Bar in Edgartown. The commission decided a public hearing was not necessary.
Chris Dias, owner of Specialty Builders’ Supply in Brewster, received approval to forgo putting in compostable toilets at his lumber yard at High Point Lane in Tisbury. Dias will connect two one-bedroom residential units to a Title V septic system with regular toilets. Originally, Dias had to wait for the town to extend the sewer line to his property.
A written decision of an approval not required (ANR) plan for Division Road — also known as Henry’s Way — in Edgartown was also approved. The plan looks to divide an 8.5-acre parcel of land into five lots.
