Oak Bluffs selectmen approved their annual town meeting and special town meeting warrants for Tuesday, April 14, at 7 pm at the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School Performing Arts Center.
The 38-article warrant will have voters decide on funding for a new town hall, two plastic mitigation bylaws, taking land by eminent domain, and adopting a building code to qualify as a Green Community.
Once again, Oak Bluffs voters will decide on whether to fund construction for a town hall.
The decision to renovate the former elementary school that town offices have occupied since 2000 comes after an attempt to build a new town hall failed. In 2017, town voters approved $9.8 million for a new town hall, but the following year, two separate bids for the project came in over budget, the last being as high as $11.1 million. A vote to approve an additional $1.3 million was shot down by voters at a special election in November 2018.
After failing to fund the project, the town went back to the drawing board, and has been working with Icon Architecture and a construction manager at risk (CMAR) to develop a maximum project cost in advance of the annual town meeting, so voters know exactly how much a town hall would cost.
The town is still working to establish a project cost — preliminary cost estimates have put the project cost at $11 million. The project would be funded through a Proposition 2½ debt exclusion.
A Proposition 2½ debt exclusion raises property taxes for a limited period of time to fund a specific capital project, like building a new town hall. A Proposition 2½ override is similar, but it increases property taxes indefinitely, and is usually for an ongoing expense the town needs to fund now and in the future.
If approved by voters, Icon expects construction to begin on Sept. 1, with completion by the summer of 2021.
Voters will decide on approving one, both, or neither of the plastic mitigation bylaws on the warrant. Last month, selectmen placed two plastic mitigation bylaws on the warrant, one from Plastic Free MV, a group of student activists, and one from a group of Oak Bluffs business owners.
The goal of Plastic Free MV is to eliminate the use of disposable plastic water and soda bottles 34 ounces (roughly one liter) and under; gallons and large containers would still be allowed. If passed in Oak Bluffs, the bylaw would take effect May 1, 2021.
To make up for the lack of plastic bottles sold and distributed on the Island, the students are advocating for convenient water refill stations in businesses and public areas, and the use of alternative brands in glass or boxed containers.
Plastic Free was successful in getting the article passed by voters in the up-Island towns of West Tisbury, Chilmark, and Aquinnah. The bylaw will go into effect for those towns in May.
In response to Plastic Free, Luke DeBettencourt, owner of the Corner Store on Circuit Avenue, presented a plastics reduction and mitigation bylaw as an alternative that would not ban any plastics like Plastic Free’s bylaw, but would establish a seven-member committee to create an action plan by March 2021.
Oak Bluffs is on its way to becoming a Green Community, but it needs voter approval first.
Green Community status provides a roadmap and financial support to municipalities that cut energy use by 20 percent over five years, and meet four other criteria. One of those criteria is for the town to adopt the Massachusetts building stretch code for energy efficiency. Buildings constructed to the stretch code use significantly less energy than buildings constructed under other codes.
Two articles focus on creating parking lots to relieve parking congestion in the downtown area.
Voters will decide on approving $815,000 to purchase or take by eminent domain a half-acre of land from Eversource. The property sits directly across from the Barn Bowl & Bistro on Uncas Avenue. The property is considered surplus. The other article is for $510,000 to construct a 50-space park and ride lot on town land on the corner of County Road and Pennsylvania Avenue. The project would be funded by a debt exclusion.
With Community Preservation Committee (CPC) funding, voters will choose whether to fund $200,000 to assist in funding a project to restore Sunset Lake and Lakeside Park for active and passive recreation. Other CPC articles include $125,000 for Harbor Homes to help purchase a house for low-income residents, and $50,000 to restore the pipe organ at the Union Chapel Educational and Cultural Institute.
Other funding articles include $2,774,000 for replacing sidewalks in the downtown area, $50,000 for a new highway department dump truck, $35,000 for harbor maintenance, $35,000 for renovating Kennebec Avenue bathrooms, $32,000 for a new shellfish department truck, and $25,000 for Ocean Park bandstand maintenance.