Lagoon Ridge responds to community concerns

To the Editor:
I am writing to address apparent misconceptions around the Lagoon Ridge special permit modification requests, currently under review by the Oak Bluffs planning board.
I first want to make clear that my client wholeheartedly agrees with the prevailing public sentiment that the spirit and objectives of the existing special permit should be preserved — especially with respect to the affordable units and conservation.
Based on letters we have seen, conversations with neighbors, and your recent article, we sense there is a perception that the modification request is to eliminate and/or lessen obligations under the existing special permit. This is not the case.
The existing special permit provides for four affordable units to be located in two duplexes. 

The proposed modification does not seek to reduce the number of affordable units to be built. Rather, the proposed modification is to adjust the “build-out schedule” to allow the release of six of the eight lots within Clusters A and B. This will, in turn, provide the finances needed to build all four affordable units.

In addition, our proposal includes various mechanisms to provide the town and community assurances that all four affordable units will be completed as soon as possible, including:

• until construction financing related to the affordable units is secured in an amount satisfactory to the planning board, net sales proceeds related to the six lots shall be placed in an escrow account for the purpose of funding the construction of the affordable units;
• prior to the release of any lot for sale, the planning board will be provided full transparency on the sale price, expenses, and net proceeds to fund the escrow account; and
• a condition that two lots in Cluster A shall not be released for sale until all four affordable units are issued certificates of occupancy.

The existing special permit requires the 8.8 acres of land (located outside the “roving building envelopes” within the lots in Cluster A and B) to be conserved via a conservation restriction to be granted to a qualified conservation group, and be approved by the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, an unwieldy and time-consuming process. 

Our request is to allow the Homeowners Association to hold, monitor, and enforce the conservation restriction for the 8.8 acres located within the Cluster A and B lots. This is an alternative option that is already expressly allowed under Oak Bluffs zoning bylaws Section 7.3.14.3, and already applies to ownership of the 11.1 acres of “open space” within Lagoon Ridge to be owned by the Homeowners Association.
To be perfectly clear, we are not seeking to reduce the size of the land to be conserved or lessen the enforceability of the conservation restriction in any way. We are simply asking for an alternative method allowed under Oak Bluffs zoning. Our proposal calls for subsequent review and approval by the planning board and town counsel of the terms of the conservation restriction before the release of any lots, which can be completed quickly.

The modifications we are seeking are not to “get out” of, eliminate, or lessen any obligations of the existing special permit, but rather we are seeking to adjust the processes by which the existing conditions related to the affordable units and conservation are to be achieved. This will allow them to be completed sooner than is currently possible under the terms of the existing special permit.

Eric L. Peters, attorney for

Lagoon Ridge MV, LLC