The proposed affordable housing development Southern Tier cleared a significant hurdle Thursday evening, after being granted unanimous approval by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.
Slated for 85 Edgartown–Vineyard Haven Road in Oak Bluffs, the first phase of the Southern Tier project will consist of 45 to 48 affordable housing units, and will be available to renters with incomes between 30 percent and 110 percent of area median income (AMI).
Plans for the development, brought to the commission for review by developers Affirmative Investments and Island Housing Trust, closely mirror those of the recently approved Meshacket Commons project in Edgartown.
Unlike Meshacket, which will be located on 36 Meshacket Road, and consists of 40 affordable housing units (36 rentals, four for ownership) on a 8.5-acre parcel, the Southern Tier project will feature 45 to 48 rental units on 7.8 acres, making it slightly more densely populated.
Southern Tier will neighbor both residential and public/community areas, including the YMCA, Ice Arena, and the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School, and sits to the south of the Southern Woodland district of critical planning concern (DCPC), much of it needing to be preserved per MVC’s open space policy.
A second phase of the project, not yet reviewed by the commission, involves the construction of additional multifamily units on an adjacent 24-acre parcel, which was made available by the passing of the “doughnut hole” land swap legislation last year.
Southern Tier will consist of one-, two-, and three-bedroom units spread throughout a total of 10 structures, in addition to an onsite shared community building.
Buildings will feature rooftop solar generation, electric vehicle charging stations, 68 parking spaces, an advanced nitrogen-removing septic system, and be 100 percent fossil-fuel-free.
The commission’s decision Thursday followed a number of review sessions and public hearings, and most recently a recommendation to approve the project by the MVC’s Land Use Planning subcommittee Monday.
During their deliberation, commissioners mulled the benefits and detriments of the project; it was quickly agreed that the development serves as a benefit to the Island’s housing needs.
The housing that the project will bring to Islanders, commission chair Joan Malkin said, acts as the “tipping factor” for its approval.
“It’s a no-brainer,” commissioner Doug Sederholm said.
Other priority issues identified during the development of regional impact (DRI) review included the impact on Oak Bluffs open space; commissioners agreed that the imposition on undeveloped land is considered a detriment.
“When you want to make a significant difference, and promptly,” Malkin said, “a development which necessarily involves undeveloped land becomes [a] primary option.”
On whether the proposed development ought to be considered appropriate or essential, commissioner Fred Hancock echoed Malkin.
“It’s what can be built in the short term, in terms of zoning and in terms of wastewater,” he said. “It gets some apartments on the market, and more quickly than any other thing we could do, given our great need for affordable housing on the Island.” That need “is just getting greater every day,” he said.
Commissioner Ben Robinson agreed. “The [housing] crisis has pushed us to choose these types of models,” he said of the development plans.
But in the long term, he said, “We’re going to have to think much more strategically about how we add housing on the Island — without essentially taking away what makes this place rural.”
In the short term, he said, “this is what we have, and that’s the crisis we’re in.”
Commissioner Linda SIbley, the longest serving member of the MVC, concurred, and noted that adding single-family houses one at a time “impact[s] rural space and the character” of the Island. “It really breaks my heart,” she said, “but people need to live someplace.”
“The one and only true dry cleaner we have on this Island is about to close because they can’t find housing for their manager,” she said. “The housing crisis is real, and terrifying, because I think it’s going to end up indirectly destroying this Island.”
“It’s already gone,” Commissioner Trip Barnes commented; “[the Island] is nothing like it used to be.”
Commissioners subsequently voted in favor of approval, contingent upon conditions placed on the project which, among other regulations, include an agreement that all units be rental properties in perpetuity, in addition to an agreement by developers to conduct an archeological survey of identified cultural resources.
