West Tisbury will be holding its annual town meeting on Tuesday, April 12, at West Tisbury School, beginning at 6 pm. The town meeting will be held in town for the first time in two years. The town held town meetings at the Tabernacle in Oak Bluffs during the height of the pandemic.
On the warrant, which can be found on the town’s website, a topic of high interest for town residents is the proposed “residential building size bylaw” change. The proposed bylaw change was first introduced to the public in January by Preserve West Tisbury, a subcommittee of the West Tisbury planning board, and came back for more feedback later in the same month, which resulted in pushback from some of the West Tisbury residents. If this bylaw passes, the planned start date would be June 1.
In relation to new houses, another article seeks to require new or substantial wiring to accommodate electrical vehicle chargers. This would also be the case for new or substantially renovated buildings. This was proposed to “protect the health and welfare of the town’s inhabitants and the environment,” according to the warrant.
Another article that has gathered attention is to vote on whether the West Tisbury select board members will petition the legislature for the passage of a special law that would help establish the Martha’s Vineyard housing bank. Petitioning the state will come after four out of the six Island towns approve the proposal, according to the warrant article. If the housing bank is approved by the towns and the state, it will go into effect immediately.
Town meeting is also a time when voters get an opportunity to decide what equipment the town purchases. One of the requests is to spend $145,000 to purchase an “all-season machine” to replace an existing Kubota tractor, according to the warrant. The new equipment will provide “sweeping, brush cutting, and emergency storm cleanup,” the warrant states.
Voters are also being asked to allocate $523,000 for the renovation of Howes House, which houses the Up-Island Council on Aging. The funding is contingent on a positive vote on the town ballot, as well.
The building department is seeking a vote of town meeting to increase its fees to cover the cost of operating the department.
The other warrant articles include administrative proposals and the appropriation of money by the town for projects, such as $100,000 to repair and upgrade town buildings. Other spending articles include $52,250 from the Community Preservation Undesignated Reserve Fund to pay the sixth of 10 installments to pay down principal and interest for Scott’s Grove, an affordable housing community, and $600,000 from free cash to reduce the tax levy for fiscal year 2023.
Meanwhile, voters will consider the budget for fiscal year 2023, which is an increase from $20.3 million to $22.1 million.
A couple of comments, if I may:
1. No special wiring is needed for charging electric cars!! – I have said this so many time in so many places in this community over these past 9 years, yet, all I ever hear is that everyone has to upgrade their wiring (immensely expensive!), and install a Level 2 charger ($2000?), and must of course have a dry heated garage. NONE of that is needed. Period.
Here are the FACTS: all you need is a standard 120v plug with a 15 amp breaker – plug it in at night and it’ll be fully charged by morning. Absolutely no need for a dry heated garage, in fact, no need for any garage at all.
I know this from my own experience over the past 9 years with my 2012 LEAF – which has never ever EVER had anything fail, nothing – it has been 100% perfect in every detail, despite the abuse it has taken from me, including no garaging at all the entire 9 years. And it has never needed any servicing (nothing!).
And it has saved me thousands of dollars over these past 9 years.
And it can still take me around the entire island on a single charge, a whole day excursion, say 60 miles, consuming only 14 kWh, which @ $0.25, cost only $3.57, and which can of course be charged 100% solar with just a few PV panels.
Compare that with with $9.60, and that’s just for the gasoline! – and 60 miles @ 25 mpg emits 1500 pounds of CO2!! (25 pounds of CO2 /gallon).
I cannot understand why anyone is still clinging to that old ridiculously false information.
Why are people so unwilling to learn the best of what is possible to do right here, right now?
That resistance is deadly discouraging and deadly destructive.
The worst example happening right now is the Tisbury School – the Tappe design has zero solar capacity (except inadequate PV on the roof) – all of the S,E and West facing walls are unable to harvest any of the massive amounts of solar energy that falls upon them.
In addition, massive amounts of energy will be lost through vast amounts of North-facing glass.
In the year 2022, this is an idiotic design, a totally unacceptable, unethical, immoral design, for which our children would be forced to pay 1/4 million dollars per month until 2053!
This is a scandal that must be stopped.
Demolition of that rock-solid beautiful old gym, still in excellent condition and expandable to current court specs, is scheduled to begin “right after Town Meeting”, which is coming right up – and – I might as well announce right now that I will be standing in front off of those bulldozers to prevent that from happening – and I hope to God that I will not be the only one.
For those who care about our children, please get informed, and please stand up and do what needs to be done.
As a society, we can no longer afford to remain so deeply uninformed. Our current action is dooming our children to the worst of what is predicted, which will be hell for everyone of them – unless we do what has to be done in order to perhaps have a chance to avert the worst. Wise decisions can only be made if people have enough up-to-date information.
That information is clearly described in both of my books.
I will comment on my second point in my next post.
And here’s my second comment – regarding house size restrictions.
Dear Friends – I have to ask again, in what way does one big house on 5 acres cause more harm than 20 smaller houses on the same land? (What is it nowadays for “affordable” housing? – 1/4 acre for 3 bdrm+?)
The fact is that 20 houses will cause 10-20x more nitrogen pollution than an 8000 sq.ft. house with extended family occupancy mostly during the summer months. And 20 houses are likely to add 30-40 additional students to our school system, whereas one big house is likely to add zero new students.
Of course, no big house, or any other house, should ever be allowed to be an eyesore, and they should also be required to generate at least as much solar electricity as they consume – this eliminates the need for immensely costly neighborhood wiring upgrades.
Dear Samantha and everyone else who is driving this issue – I love you all, but I do believe that you are wrong on this issue. Please think about it. I’d be happy to talk with any of you about it.
This is what I recommend:
All houses need to be upgraded so they no longer require any fossil fuels or cause any Nitrogen pollution. Why should anyone be allowed to cause pollution? Right?
Luckily this is easy to do and will save everyone some real money. Good for the economy, will create tons of jobs (but we must do everything we can to avoid any further increase of our population. Right?)
Good for our environment, health and wellbeing. Guaranteed to improve everyone’s Happiness Quotient, Security, Freedom.
A complete switch to electricity, PV and batteries – with all-electric cars, heating, cooling, lighting, and all normal tools, appliances, gadgets, electronics –
You can use as much electricity as you want to, as long as it is all generated on your site, in a fully self-sufficient independent system, which will continue to function fully when all else fails, and will therefore be by far the most secure.
And it would also be the most economical:
IF it’s done well enough, the annual savings will be greater than the annual cost of the loan required to do it. And the CO2 footprint from each family would go down by 100%, from roughly 70 tons annually down to zero.
You think I am kidding? Please read my books – all the evidence, facts, data, test results, designs and calculations are in there, in great detail. And please research further on google.
It’s high time that everyone learns what it is we can actually do, today, to stop our disgusting Nitrogen pollution, and to stop our filthy CO2 emissions, and to improve our economy and our security.
It’s high time everyone learn the difference between bad and good design. It is essential and it is simple.
The Climate Emergency is upon us, barely begun – and if we all step in as if it’s a matter of life or death (which of course it is), and other communities do the same, then we just might have a chance to at least reduce the worst of what they say is coming.
The question is of course, does anyone really care?
It certainly seems that hardly anything is being done about real Climate Action or Nitrogen reduction – words words words but hardly even token action.
And there is this most dreadful unwillingness to listen to anything being said such as above.
I wonder, why is this attitude so overwhelmingly prevalent in our community?
I don’t know if it’s same everywhere else, but I sure know it’s a deadly progress-killer here.
I wonder why doesn’t everyone know what I know? I’ve known it for 40 years, and have told everyone. But it seems that nobody else has learned what I learned and then taught.
And to call Affordable Housing affordable seems like a cruel joke – a tiny one bedroom apartment in one of these tight little housing clusters is $550,000! And monthly rent of $2500 is affordable?! That’s $30,000/year!
I am all in favor of affordable housing but not at the expense of our economy and our drinkingwater and ponds.
When I first came here fulltime, 1972, many of us built beautiful simple cozy little homes – comfortable, low cost, low impact, without any of today’s destructive codes, with some materials found at the dumps and along the beaches and in the woods. We made do, we worked hard, we had fun, and we had gardens, we were safe, close to nature. And there were comfortable sofas on the ferries!
Then everything changed as we were increasing subjected to destructive Government regulations – Title 5 septic systems is a perfect example.
And the rest is history. But it need not be our future.
Thank you Anna for your letters. I hope they will be read and start some serious thinking and questioning.
Regarding the Tisbury school; are functioning windows in the plans? I can still hear those big windows being opened by the teacher letting in fresh air off the harbor. I hope COVID has taught those of us that didn’t realize how important FRESH air is.
Your comments regarding big houses vs. developments is common sense, why can’t people understand that?
As for electricity, I have seen only one letter commenting on cutting back the amount of electricity we use. It’s horrifying how much we consume. UNPLUG YOUR STUFF .
I really wish the dashing, intelligent Times staff would publish my comments questioning Mz. Edey’s standing to comment on matters architectural or ecological. If they can pledge to Rachel Corrie on behalf of a crumbling, asbestos-laced gym, why can I not question their bona fides or rational disinterest regarding the same?
wow! Thanks Anna, very infoirmative and helpful. Has me rethinking our own proect to make a modest addition to our current house as well as adding a garage – in that process we intend to add solar panels and hopefully convert our house (and garage) to all solar dependant.
I may even be calling on you!
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