Katama Meadows changed to meet municipal housing need

A sprawling development planned for Edgartown was adjusted to meet the town’s need for middle-income housing for municipal workers, but some environmental advocates remain unswayed about their disapproval of the project. 

The project still needs regional approval, and so at a Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC) meeting on Thursday, the developers and attorney for Katama Meadows — a 54-acre, 52-lot housing development off of Meshaket Way and Division Road in Edgartown — decreased restrictions to serve middle-income Islanders, often referred to as the “missing middle.” According to housing officials, those in this category make too much to qualify for affordable homes but can’t afford the average costs on the market.

But to some, that’s not enough. The other side of that coin is there are many low-income earners who also can’t find affordable housing on the Vineyard. As Commissioner Doug Sederholm of West Tisbury put it at Thursday’s meeting, “There is a crying need for housing at all levels, and if the missing middle can’t pay for it, what do you think the people who are poorer than that can do?”

The most notable change to the plan is that 12 lots geared towards the “missing middle” Islanders had their cost lowered. Two of the 12 will be donated to Habitat for Humanity and be restricted at 80 percent area median income (AMI), or $72,950 for an individual. And the remaining ten, referred to as “attainable lots,” will be restricted to two times the AMI, or a yearly income of $210,200 for an individual. Robert Moriarty, the attorney for Katama Meadows, said the cost of the lots decreased from $295,000 to $265,000.

“The reason there’s a missing middle, [and] the reason there’s no missing middle housing is because there’s no funding to address the problem,” Moriarty said on Thursday. “People at that level are desperate for housing because they can’t pay the market.”

The previous subdivided plan for Katama Meadows included 14 lots donated to the town of Edgartown for future affordable housing projects, 12 lots for middle-income earners (capped at 2.5 times the 2025 area median income of $105,100, which equals $262,750 for an individual), and 26 market-rate lots. 

For the market-rate lots, which remain unchanged in this updated iteration, homes will be capped at five bedrooms each, but are not restricted to year-round residents. Some opponents of the project have pointed out that the lack of restrictions could increase the seasonal housing stock on an Island already seeing a high percentage of vacant homes. 

Moriarty said the changes were a direct response to concerns raised before and during the last MVC hearing on Katama Meadows in February, letters that have been submitted to the MVC by the public, and requests from the town of Edgartown.

The 14 lots that will be donated to Edgartown are still being finalized. One of the lots will also be donated to Habitat for Humanity to again be income restricted at 80 percent AMI. The remaining 13 lots are slated for affordable housing projects by the town. Edgartown is still narrowing in on income-restrictions, but all will be perpetually restricted to year-round occupancy. 

Representatives from the town of Edgartown said they support the revised plan in the hopes that municipal workers will qualify for these lots. Melissa Vincent, chair of the affordable housing committee in Edgartown, said that no town employees applied for the affordable ownership homes at Meshacket Commons, a development near Katama Meadows’ proposed site. This fact was shocking to town representatives, who said they encouraged staff to apply.

Town-led projects must abide by income restrictions for affordability, and Edgartown officials said these limits underestimate the salaries of the Islanders who work for the town.

“We are looking at this project as a way to house folks whose incomes are at a higher level, so that we can be able to service the needs of our community,” Vincent said of her support of Katama Meadows.

Vincent did ask for a further decrease of the price of the “attainable lots” to $225,000 to be more affordable. And Edgartown is reportedly undergoing a municipal housing assessment to zone in on income restrictions that would be most accessible to town employees. 

Laura Silber, the housing planner for the MVC, said Island towns have the ability to spend public funds on municipal employee housing projects, as outlined in the seasonal communities designation, which is a part of the “Affordable Homes Act,” a comprehensive statewide housing bill. 

“My understanding, just to fill in some color, is what [Edgartown is] trying to do on other land that is not town-owned land is to meet the public sector employee housing needs,” Silber said. 

Some commissioners said they’re hoping for further studies, like the planned municipal housing assessment, to clarify the benefits of this type of housing more. They also highlighted the cost of building a house. The affordable price of the lots are for the land, not the home. 

“We don’t want to create a bunch of indentured servants that are stuck without appreciating assets because they built the house,” Ben Robinson, Tisbury commissioner, said. “This isn’t a house that they can get at a low cost. They have to invest in the build. But I also just think it needs to be studied, so that we don’t get a position where people get a subsidy at the beginning, and then a decreasing value going forward.”

On Thursday, Moriarty also addressed environmental concerns about the nitrogen load that the development could introduce into Edgartown Great Pond, which is close to the planned project. He presented a drone video from Instagram of the cut being opened between the ocean and Edgartown Great Pond. 

“Edgartown is doing everything it can to reduce nitrogen into the pond,” Moriarty told the commissioners regarding the opening of the waterway, which reduces nitrogen by introducing movement and ocean water back into the pond. He said the project’s added nitrogen is not exorbitant, and with the consideration of nitrogen mitigation already underway, is not as much a hindrance to the area. 

But commissioners still feared the impact of the project, specifically the market-rate lots, on the land and pond. Michael Kim, the governor’s appointee at the MVC, said aligning the plan with the MVC’s Water Quality Policy brings the project to neutral ground, but in order to be approved, the project overall has to be a benefit to residents and the environment. The MVC weighs benefits and detriments to approve or deny housing plans of this kind. 

“Sacrificing for housing, I will vote for all day. Sacrificing for market-rate units? Probably not. So, that’s why I’m putting it out there — to get you a benefit, which you don’t have right now,” Kim said to Moriarty. 

Sam Look, executive director of the Vineyard Conservation Society, and Emily Reddington, the executive director of the Edgartown Great Pond Foundation, have both spoken out against the Katama Meadows project, specifically because of what they say are health risks posed to an already fragile pond ecosystem. 

But Moriarty has pushed back on those findings consistently. He said the project is in line with the Water Quality Policy set by the MVC for housing developments, and that the planned homes that will eventually be built on the lots of open land at Katama Meadows will all be tied to the town sewer, which reduces the nitrogen load substantially. Private sewage systems have a greater nitrogen output than town ones, Moriarty said. 

He also sent a letter on Tuesday, March 17 to the commissioners outlining his concerns that the Great Pond Foundation was “stoking fear of this apparent imminent collapse of the ecosystem.” 

“She [Reddington] ignored several critical facts and glossed over others,” Moriarty wrote in the letter. He did research into the nitrogen, wastewater, and environmental effects and said the detriments have been overstated.

Look asked to read a response to said letter at Thursday’s commission meeting. She backed the accuracy of the facts presented about nitrogen loading and environmental concern, and said Moriarty was unnecessarily personal and attacked Reddington’s credentials. 

“It would have been disappointing enough merely to denigrate the character of the foundation, but he went further by targeting the person presenting the testimony,” Look said.

Like environmental concerns, traffic was another topic that was addressed both on Thursday and at the previous MVC hearing about Katama Meadows. The MVC transportation program manager, Michael Mauro, completed an assessment of the area where the development is proposed, and found that traffic would likely not increase in a detrimental manner due to the planned housing project. 

He found that the development could increase traffic impact by about 300 cars, spread out through the peak hours of summer, but that would not have the substantial effect on traffic feared by opposition to the project during the MVC session in February. 

But some who attended the meeting Thursday still pointed to the possible detrimental effects of a large project like Katama Meadows. 

“Yes, we need housing,” South Mountain Company founder John Abrams said. “But we don’t need our livelihoods disrupted by the pollution of this project.”