Updated, Nov. 5
There has been a lot of noise around the construction of workforce housing on Spring Street in Vineyard Haven the past several months, a project that is intended to house Vineyard Wind’s operations and maintenance workforce. And it’s not just from the drilling of screws into drywall or the clatter of construction trucks.
There’s been a rather loud debate among town officials, the developer, and the community that has sometimes devolved into nastiness, which is drowning out a real issue that requires some careful listening.
The developer, Xerxes Aghassipour, has filed documents saying that he hasn’t been given fair treatment by local planning board officials, and is using text messages he obtained through a records request as ammunition.
Those text messages are problematic. While referencing a meeting where town officials agreed to lift a cease-and-desist order on the development, Amy Upton, administrator for the town’s planning board, alleged that the town and developers were colluding to move the project forward. The text messages also contained profane language unbecoming of a planning board administrator. We have since learned that Upton has been placed on administrative leave while the town conducts a review of her actions, which is likely the right decision. Public officials, paid or volunteer, need to be fair, and anything suggesting otherwise is a threat to public trust.
Meanwhile, neighbors and abutters to 97 Spring St. have said, with good evidence, that the town let the project sail through without oversight from regulatory boards. Our reporting from July shows that planning board members believed that a development of this size should require more than just the signature of the town building inspector, and we agree.
But beyond the discord of local politics, opponents say approving this project is a slippery slope. If this and other workforce housing developments for the offshore wind industry sail through without proper vetting, we run the risk of eroding the historic character of Vineyard Haven, and giving way to a company town for the offshore wind industry. That is something that the entire Island should be concerned about.
Vineyard Wind officials have said that approximately 56 jobs will be open for people on the Island, and have identified a number of properties in Vineyard Haven to house them, including 97 Spring St. In a housing production plan submitted to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, many of the workers would be working offshore at the site, while others would be working at the operations and maintenance building on Beach Road. The report details that the jobs would consist of rotating shifts two weeks at a time, so workers could be working on the Island for two weeks, then head off-Island. These will not be taxpaying community members whose children go to school here.
Eventually, Vineyard Wind says, the idea is that the nonlocal workers would be transitioned off-Island, while local workers on the Island would make up the workforce. Vineyard Wind expects that 100 percent of those 50 or so employees will be living on the Island within three years of the project.
WIth the housing woes that the Island is experiencing, the addition of the offshore wind industry isn’t helping matters, but only adding to the woes. Vineyard Wind is hopeful that workers will eventually turn into year-round Islanders, but what reassurances do we have that that will be the case? And what happens when the other companies in the burgeoning industry look to house transient workers on the Island as well?
The main complaint with housing issues on the Island is that when you walk down a street after the summer months, significant chunks of neighborhoods are dark. That will be especially on display tonight, when kids go out to trick-or-treating.
As the Martha’s Vineyard Commission weighs whether to take this project under its review, it need to consider this impact to the community.
The Vineyard is sacrificing for the offshore wind industry by hosting the massive turbines off of our once pristine coast. That’s part of a sacrifice that the world needs to make to cut down on our fossil-fuel emissions and fight against climate change. But we also deserve reassurances from the massive industry moving onto the shores that the big business interests behind the Vineyard Wind project won’t threaten the beauty of our beloved seascape, or degrade the character of our close-knit Island community.
This post was updated to reflect regular agencies the project arguably should have gone through.
