Edgartown residents have served notice that they want to block the growth of McMansions that have increasingly appeared along the historic town’s waterfront and elsewhere.
Under the new zoning bylaw amendment, construction for residential structures, including additions to existing residential structures, cannot result in 10,000 square feet of floor area in total on a lot. Some recently built homes are far larger.
The so-called big house bill passed 132 to 35 at the April 9 town meeting. Town officials said Edgartown has seen an increase in lots with oversize homes or multiple accessory structures that have been highly resource-consumptive.
Construction permitted prior to the meeting will be exempt from the new size limits.
This amendment stems from a vote last year to address climate change in Edgartown. Voters at the 2023 town meeting approved $75,000 to fund a review and update of town zoning bylaws, in an effort to help the town cope with the effects of climate change.
Other Vineyard towns previously approved limits on home sizes, with Chilmark doing so in 2013, and West Tisbury in 2022.
Julia Livingston, a member of Edgartown’s zoning bylaw review committee, told The Times that especially large homes pose climate and energy concerns.
“They’re complex, from a construction and electric point of view,” said Livingston. Large homes draw lots of energy when they keep their heat and air conditioning on all year, she added.
“These large houses are using an enormous amount of resources,” Livingston said. “We need to shrink our carbon footprint.”
The bylaw notes that the larger homes affect the environment in other ways as well.
The “larger residential structures and multiple accessory structures” end up “disturbing more land area, altering the flow of stormwater and recharge of groundwater, threatening habitats, and typically consuming more energy and water,” it reads.
Livingston said the recent growth of large homes and outbuildings on residential lots has been “just amazing.”
“A whole lot gets covered with buildings, or a pool, [or] patios,” she said. “You see it on North Water Street, Main Street — pretty much everywhere.”
There are exceptions to the 10,000-square-foot maximum, based on environmental impacts.
A total of 12,000 square feet may be permitted if fossil fuels are only used to power a backup generator, if all the buildings are connected to the town sewer or use an enhanced nitrogen-removal septic system, and if all the driveways and parking lots have permeable surfaces.
And two uses are exempt from the bylaw — accessory structures used only for agriculture, and cluster developments permitted under town zoning bylaws.
The big-house zoning bylaw took effect immediately after it was approved at the town meeting, according to town clerk Karen Medeiros. She added that the amendment will also be subject to future review by state Attorney General Andrea Campbell.
