To the Editor:
A proposed housing development, Green Villa, is before the Martha’s Vineyard Commission for review. The commission rarely denies proposed projects. Instead, the 17 commissioners generally approve projects and impose conditions intended to mitigate the project’s detrimental impacts. Fair enough.
Green Villa is one project, however, that should not be approved. It should be denied. It is, quite simply, too big. One hundred residential units and four commercial units on a single parcel of fewer than eight acres. For the commission to deny this project, “too big” must also mean “too detrimental.”
Green Villa, if approved, will be just that. Too detrimental.
- It will create greater density (i.e., the number of units per acre) and greater massing (i.e., larger, taller, more imposing buildings) than most, if not all, other Island developments, forever altering the face of our community.
- It will overwhelm this already overdeveloped strip of the Vineyard Haven–Edgartown Road. To its immediate northwest, a development is underway for 60 units for low-income residents. Farther up the road are the high school, the YMCA, Martha’s Vineyard Community Services, the M.V. Ice Arena, and the skate park.
- It will eliminate almost eight acres of natural woodland, destroying an area which today serves as wildlife habitat, and intruding on the serenity of the nearby protected Southern Woodlands. Moreover, it will mark the loss of the woodland’s carbon sequestration benefits. And the new impermeable surface covering vast portions of the acreage will no longer absorb pollutants now captured by the existing vegetation.
- It will significantly increase traffic along the V.H.–Edgartown Road, degrading the quality of service from E to F (where the lowest rating is F, reserved for routes which are overtaxed with severe congestion). It will increase waiting times by as much as 10 seconds (well beyond our acceptable norm, barring a few troublesome intersections) and add a four-car backup at the roundabout, currently operating over capacity during peak periods. Apart from the personal inconvenience, idling time generates noxious carbon emissions which contribute to the climate crisis.
- The forecast 140 huge trucks carrying the modular housing units through Five Corners and along Island roads will not only create additional traffic issues at crucial intersections, but will result in wear and tear on our roads, advancing the need for maintenance.
- It will generate considerable noise as it accommodates roughly 225 new residents, countless people accessing the four retail shops, and all their cars and trucks. This does not account for the numerous commercial vehicles (landscapers, tradespeople, delivery vans, etc.) that will also be accessing the development to serve the new residents and businesses. Important to note is that right next door on Gambas Road is a small, quiet residential community.
- It fails to provide for community space or services. No community room, no sheltered bike racks, no playing field, no playground — in fact, no open space for the 225 new residents to convene (except the land atop the septic system, which the developer cannot build on, and a slim strip at the rear of the development).
- It will not add any solar capacity for what appear to be technical reasons related, it seems, to the amount of power the development would generate. But it remains a fact — this project will not offer solar.
- It will add light pollution. Despite downward shielding of lighting which the commission typically requires, this now dark patch of woodland won’t be recognizable in the future. There is just no way that 225 residents living on fewer than eight acres can escape making a huge impact on night lighting.
- I have no idea what the impacts on the water supply and nitrogen pollution might be. They might be neutral; they might be additional detriments. You can bet they will not benefit the Island.
To be fair, Green Villa proposes 25 affordable units and 75 workforce units. It’s not that the Island doesn’t need housing for its residents who cannot afford to buy into or rent existing stock. We do. But building housing on this scale introduces detriments that collectively outweigh the benefits. More important, “if you build it, they will come.” This new housing cannot be pledged for Island residents only. Off-Islanders will find the options attractive and apply. Development begets development. The new Islanders will need food, gas, hospital services, schools, etc., etc. Organic growth is one thing; big development is quite another.
Of course, there is the bigger picture. Green Villa is not the only huge housing development before the commission. Two other huge housing developments and a smaller one are in the wings. In addition, two are already underway, including the one right next door to Green Villa. As this newspaper noted, we are looking at 500 new beds.
Green Villa alone is a project that tips the benefit/detriment scale in favor of a commission denial. Just as surely and to a greater degree, so does the big housing onslaught we are facing, all fueling the adverse effects of continued big development. It is time to urgently reckon with incrementalism, which metes out damage and loss in doses cloaked in benefit. The commission needs to tackle head-on the reality and unwelcome impacts of big growth and incrementalism. We cannot simply build our way out of our housing situation without irreparable and irreversible damage to our Island home. We are the “boiling frog” as big development threatens to forever and inalterably change the look and feel of our Island home.
Joan Malkin
Chilmark
Editor’s note: Malkin is a former member and chair of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.
