Martha’s Vineyard Airport’s plans to renovate its outdated terminal got the endorsement from the Island’s regional planners.
On Thursday, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission completed its rapid review of the airport’s proposed renovations to its terminal, unanimously voting to approve the project deemed “appropriate and essential.”
Airport officials had requested the commission expedite its review process in light of tight deadlines that they needed to meet or risk losing $15 million in funding from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).
A concern raised during the commission review was the amount of traffic on the roads near the airport. The airport plans to form a task force, which will include the commission, Dukes County, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation, the state Department of Conservation and Recreation, and the towns of Oak Bluffs, Edgartown, and West Tisbury by Sept. 1 to address the issues. The task force will give progress reports to local officials every six months.
The planned terminal construction is intended to modernize the Vineyard airport, which the Dukes County website states was built during World War II by the U.S. Navy to train naval aviators. It became a civilian airport in 1959.
The terminal renovation, which will add around 14,000 square feet of building space, covers many changes, including improving energy efficiency and bringing the airport into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Airport officials have said one of the primary goals is to accommodate Transportation Security Administration and airline staff for security reasons. Additionally, a new terminal would allow a proper heating and air-conditioning system to be installed in the area, and the portable toilets to be replaced with new permanent restrooms. The renovations will also make it easier for passengers arriving and departing the airport to navigate the terminal.
The airport still needs to complete several steps before submitting an application package to the FAA, including an approval from the West Tisbury planning board. It will also have to start a bidding process to hire a contractor.
Additionally, the commission isn’t completely finished reviewing the project. Before receiving a certificate of occupancy from West Tisbury, airport officials will need to present the plan to the commission’s Land Use Planning Committee and receive approval for a final landscaping plan, featuring native plants.
Finally the commission considered a project of regional impact in the timeframe that a project should always be considered. I hope that Mr. Aghassipour or another developer uses this precedent to sue the commission and force them to streamline their process and rein in the madness that has become of getting a project approved by this board run amok. There is no reason that his Spring street development or many of the other housing proposals (especially the ones that include affordable housing) or the MV Shipyard’s inland expansion, should ever have to go through the multiple meetings and months long process for their bona fide projects that clearly don’t have an island wide impact.
This board needs to be reined in. The governor and the county won’t do it. The courts are the only path. A plaintiff needed a precedent. The new administrations pressure on this funding (FAA via DOGE) has provided this legal opportunity for someone to push back on the wild set off circumstances that keep the Island from getting affordable housing and other economic development benefits.