Updated April 10
Oak Bluffs voters took a hard stance Tuesday night: protect residential neighborhoods in the down-Island town.
During the Oak Bluffs annual town meeting, over 400 voters overwhelmingly shot down a proposal to create several light industrial/mixed use overlay districts in certain areas of town.
The proposed warrant article was intended as a way to address a lack of space for contractors to operate in Oak Bluffs. It’s been a contentious issue leading up to the town meeting with some contractors pushing for the change. But opponents have argued that the proposal threatened to disrupt their neighborhoods.
Voters at Tuesday’s meeting who took the microphone on the issue all spoke in opposition, arguing that creating more space for industrial purposes required a regional approach beyond just Oak Bluffs. And some voiced concern about the process of bringing the article to town meeting floor.
“There are too many unanswered questions,” Oak Bluffs resident Susan Desmairais told her fellow voters.
Oak Bluffs resident Pat Ingalls said the process leading up to town meeting did not “adequately inform” town residents about the scale and scope of the proposal, adding that the overlay districts would have long-term detriments to the town while only benefitting a small portion of the town.
“This is not an Oak Bluffs issue, this is an Island-wide issue,” Ingalls said, pointing to how Oak Bluffs takes on several regional services like high school and Martha’s Vineyard Community Services.
“We don’t need any more noise, we don’t need any more potholes, we don’t need anymore trucks,” Oak Bluffs resident Ashley Rohlfing said.
Proponent of the proposal, Oak Bluffs planning board chair Ewell Hopkins told voters that the overlay districts would provide a tool for the planning board to potentially issue special permits for contractors or businesses. Hopkins said spurring the proposal was the fact that more and more businesses are storing equipment in residentially zoned areas.
“This is an example of a tool that is addressing a very real problem that we face,” he said.
Hopkins did warn voters that even if the overlay districts were rejected, the current lack of space for commercial space in Oak Bluffs would continue to be a problem.
“I hope there is not … a sense of completion or accomplishment because the work starts at this point,” he said. “We are a residentially zoned community and we have an inability to support our growing environmental, economic, and business needs.”
In a subsequent vote, town meeting also voted against a similar set of proposed overlay districts for professional services.
In total, there were over 70 articles on the warrant Tuesday. Voters also approved the town appropriating $50,000 in free cash to enter into a joint contract with Tisbury, on a 50/50 basis, to look at developing a short-term rental database and inspection program for short-term rentals.
Oak Bluffs town administrator Deborah Potter said while short-term rental units are mostly required to be recorded with the state, Oak Bluffs currently has no way to know exactly how many or what kind of short-term rentals are in the town.
The lion’s share of Oak Bluffs’ warrant articles consisted of spending and borrowing requests, many that will need special approval at the ballot today. Voters approved $1.6 million toward replacing the boiler at Oak Bluffs School, $1 million to replace an ambulance and a Oak Bluffs Fire Department attack pumper, about $4.8 million to repair the Oak Bluffs Harbor jetties, and up to $1.6 million toward upgrading the town’s wastewater treatment facility.
Meanwhile, while there were some cuts made to the proposed budget — like a line item reduction of $13,300 for the Oak Bluffs select board — the changes were minimal. Voters passed a budget amounting to over $40 million for fiscal year 2025, an increase from the current budget of $36.852 million.
Oak Bluffs residents also voted in favor of replacing Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day.
The only warrant article that required a vote count was related to marijuana.
Patient Centric CEO and Island Time owner Geoff Rose had submitted a citizens’ petition aimed allowing a marijuana dispensary to set up downtown, like Circuit Avenue and Kennebec Avenue. Rose amended the article on town meeting floor, excluding most of Circuit Avenue from the petition.
While Rose advocated for the change and pointed to the economic benefits it would bring the town, most voters who came to the mic pushed against the effort and questioned the need to bring marijuana into Oak Bluffs. The article was rejected, 99-51.
One zoning article rejected by voters was a proposed amendment that would have expanded who can conduct businesses at home and increase the size of allowable commercial vehicles on a property. Similar to the proposed overlay districts, voters expressed concerns about the impact that the amendment would have in a residential zone.
Some of the topics that were voted on during the town meeting will reappear on the ballot during the Oak Bluffs town election, which will be held on Thursday, April 11, from 10 am to 7 pm at the Oak Bluffs Public Library. These include whether to switch Columbus Day with Indigenous Peoples Day and several Proposition 2 ½ overrides for big borrowing items like the replacement of a boiler at Oak Bluffs School.
