The Martha’s Vineyard Commission on Thursday gave its approval to 97 Spring Street, a nine-bedroom project in Vineyard Haven intended for workforce housing that’s been a lightning rod for criticism from neighbors and town officials over the last few years.
The commission narrowly approved the project by a 7–5 vote, also finding that its benefits outweigh its detriments. But the approval came with conditions that attempt to address concerns from the public that the use and appearance of the building would be out of character with its neighborhood.
Since plans went underway in 2023, many in Tisbury have been concerned by developer Xerxes Aghassipour’s intentions to rent the property to house workers from the Vineyard Wind offshore wind farm, and that a precedent could be set that would put Vineyard Haven on the path to becoming a company town.
Aghassipour has stated along the months-long commission review that he is “renter-agnostic” and will only use the property within the bounds of restrictions from the commission and town.
On Thursday evening, commissioners Brian Smith, Doug Sederholm, Ernie Thomas, Greg Martino, Jay Grossman, Linda Sibley, and Peter Wharton voted to approve the project. Jeff Agnoli, Kate Putnam, Katherine Newman, Mark Gauthier and Michael Kim voted against it.
Commissioners on both sides noted that the project may not be appropriate for its Vineyard Haven residential neighborhood — which is mostly single-family homes.
The commission’s approval comes with several conditions on the amount of occupants that will be allowed. These include accepted offers from Aghassipour to limit the property to nine unrelated residents at any one time, with no more than fourteen unrelated individuals occupying the property in a calendar year. There will also be no short-term rentals allowed.
The project still needs to receive a certificate of occupancy from Tisbury’s building department before anyone moves in. In this town process, Tisbury officials will be able to limit the number of unrelated occupants to an amount less than that allowed by the commission.
Aghassipour also must certify annually to the commission the name and address of the building’s tenant. The commission also approved his offers for facade modifications as recommended by a historical preservation consultant as well as removal of lighting for security cameras.
Before approving the project, commissioners evaluated the project for its impacts to the community across several categories.
When discussing economic impacts, commissioners disagreed as to whether workers at the property would be transient, a major concern of dozens of residents who wrote to the commission during their review.
“The conditions we put on there, of nine people in nine bedrooms with up to 14 people transiting through in any given year, suggests that these are transient workers,” commissioner Putnam said.
Commissioner Kim saw the project as inappropriate for its location. “We need workforce housing. We need this, as proposed, transient workforce housing. It’s desperately needed on the Island. It’s not needed in this neighborhood that’s an established primary residential neighborhood,” he said.
Commissioner Sederholm, however, saw the project’s creation of workforce housing as a positive. “Can I just point out that if we’re creating workforce housing, it’s for a business on the Island? It’s for a business that’s part of the community here,” he said.
The development has taken a complicated path to approval, first drawing residents’ attention when Aghassipour demolished the previous house on its lot and neighbors discovered that the town building department had permitted the building project as a single-family residence.
Commission executive Adam Turner first decided against reviewing the project as a development of regional impact in September on the grounds that it failed to meet commission criteria.
As Tisbury residents and officials have spoken out against the project and its permitting in town, Aghassipour is suing two commissioners from the town, Mary Bernadette Budinger-Cormie and Ben Robinson, for alleged conspiracy to harm his development and reputation. Budinger-Cormie, who lives next door to 97 Spring Street, became a commissioner after gaining recognition for her criticisms of the project.
This is sssoooo wrong.