Updated, Jan. 27
The Oak Bluffs planning board has officially indicated that it is dropping its turf appeal.
The board’s attorney, Michael Goldsmith, filed a motion in Massachusetts Land Court on Friday, Jan. 26, telling a judge that the board “will not be pursuing its appeal.”
The filing follows comments from planning board chair Ewell Hopkins to The Times that he was in favor of dropping the legal action. Hopkins said that town leaders do not support the legal challenge.
“With a house divided, I don’t see a path forward where we would prevail,” Hopkins said. The board chair was one of two planning board members voting to support the controversial legal challenge last year.
The close of the legal challenge removes a major impediment to the MVRHS school committee to pursue the field, which has been a contentious issue across the Island for years. But it may not be the only impediment. The Oak Bluffs health board has been considering a moratorium on any turf fields in town but indicated they would wait until the turf lawsuit had been finalized.
The planning board originally rejected the school committee’s application to build the turf field in 2022, but the school district appealed the decision and was ultimately successful in Massachusetts Land Court. A judge moved to annul the board’s rejection of a special permit, arguing that a state law known as the Dover Amendment took precedence over the board’s authority. Then in December, the planning board, in a controversial 2-1 vote — with one member absent and another member abstaining — decided to appeal the court decision.
But the town’s select board earlier this month voted 3-2 to halt funding for the appeal for a variety of issues. Board members said they didn’t want to use taxpayer money to fund the controversial lawsuit, noting that it was a dividing issue on the Island. Some members wanted to encourage unity.
Hopkins said the select board’s decision was behind his recommendation to drop the appeal. Had the select board’s concerns strictly been about finances, he said that the board could have considered other options. But because the select board voiced other concerns, he said it was not appropriate to keep the lawsuit going.
“I don’t plan on going back and fighting with them,” Hopkins said of the select board.
This post was updated to include the legal filing from the planning board.
