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.
It is disingenuous to suggest that the lead-up to the town meeting involved “contractors pushing for the change; opponents (arguing) that it threatened residential areas” as if somehow the townspeople were equally divided. In fact, very few contractors have spoken publicly in favor of this blundering Planning Board proposal. Almost all public comments have been OB voters and property owners voicing their opposition and advocating for their neighborhoods to stay residential. The public commentary up until now has been as one-sided as the vote that was taken at Town Meeting with 90% of people against. And to be clear: This was not a vote “against the working class” or “against business” as some people have tried to frame it; this was just ordinary OB voters who want to preserve their quality of life, environment, and the residential character of their neighborhoods.
Thank you for updating your article to reflect the overwhelming rejection of this warrant article by OB voters at last night’s annual town meeting.
How can a planning board member be serious with a comment where they are changing the zoning and he says it’s not changing the Zonning. The town is lucky to be done with this chairman as he obviously has no clue. Words have meanings and the words to that bylaw would change the zoning. Happy to see the town could get Behind something and use common sense which seems to be lacking.
Oddly enough your point of view is different than others.
IMO, this was just another power play by the PB Chairman. He wanted people to have to come to his board and get a “special permit”, haven’t we heard that before? He wants more power. I know he is finally leaving the PB, thank goodness. Hopefully someone who puts the interests of the town ahead of their own interests will take the job. Then they will do things above board and not stack the deck to get their way, like the current chairman did.
Pretty senseless comment Mr. Cleary. If the PB Chair wanted more power, why would he be leaving the Board?
How does it follow that these long-researched overlay district proposals have anything whatsoever to do with Mr. Hopkins’ “own interests”?
Contrary to what you think, these proposals attempted to address a long-neglected need in our town; to provide legal locations for new businesses to operate.
Of course, the NIMBY vote prevailed, but maybe a sober discussion will take place at some point either within Oak Bluffs or with one or more of the other Island towns (not likely!) to allow new businesses to service our growing residential population.
Steve, As Mr. Chairman stated, this process started over a year and a half ago. At that time, it’s likely the Chairman hadn’t decided not to run. Don’t be fooled, he loves the power and at the time this was a play by him to get more of it. So no, my comment wasn’t senseless, I just stated what many of us have thought for years. BTW, my comment on “his own interests” was him fighting the school on the field project, not necessarily this project. He spent thousands of my tax dollars fighting something that he legally didn’t have the right to rule on, as decided by law and the town counsel had warned him not to do. He was just supporting HIS “Field Fund” friends, thus acting in his own interest. The science, testing, and law, didn’t support his ruling.
Steve to label this nimbyism is narrow, inaccurate and provocative.
Factors which motivate many of us are environmental and human health, air, land and water pollution as well as ambiguous guidelines combined with poor enforcement.
We are in agreement and that the town is better off without the Planning board chairman who had his own personal agenda and really did not care about the town. The financial hardship he put on everyone. The entire island had to contribute their hard earned tax dollars because of this one man’s ego. It is not Nimby to want to keep your residential neighborhood residential. Nimby is if you live next to a commercial District already and start complaining about the commercial activity in it.
I am hopeful that the Building Inspector will now enforce this decision to keep residential areas residential. My neighborhood on Holmes Hole Road would have suffered severe consequences if the zoning changes had been approved. As it is, there are large businesses operating in our backyards. Maybe because we are so removed from Oak Bluffs proper that no one really knew or cared about what was going on back here. Then there’s the added complication that portions of the properties that are in clear violation of the existing zoning laws are also in Tisbury.
I just want my peaceful neighborhood back!
I’m a contractor, I live in Oak Bluffs. This is a tough issue, I don’t want my neighborhood to become a contractor’s lot but I also realize that without a location where contractor’s can store their equipment they won’t be able to own/operate equipment. This means companies that can afford to have the property where they can store their equipment will have fewer competitors. This means prices for the services these neighborhoods depend on will become even less affordable. So, while our neighborhoods are free of the equipment, many people will be even less likely to afford the already expensive services that make the properties in these neighborhoods attractive. The town should create an area they can rent to OB resident contractors, who are licensed and registered, getting equipment out of neighborhoods and make money at the same time.
That makes sense to me.
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