As the Island housing planner for the Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC), serving the six Island towns and Gosnold, I write in response to published comments made recently by counsel to Edgartown Gardens suggesting that the MVC’s regulatory review of 40B developments of regional impact contributes to the affordable and community housing shortage on the Island.
The reality is that, on Martha’s Vineyard and in other seasonal communities, Chapter 40B is often used by private developers in a way that exacerbates the affordability crisis.
Under Chapter 40B, in exchange for providing 20 to 25 percent of housing units as deed-restricted affordable units, developers are entitled to expedited permitting and waivers from any local regulations — including zoning, wetlands, and water quality requirements — that may reduce developer profit. The remaining 75 to 80 percent of units in a private 40B development are allowed to be unrestricted market-rate units, which on the Vineyard means high-cost investment properties and vacation rentals for which there is inexhaustible demand. In other areas of the state, unrestricted market-rate units under 40B can and do meet the needs of their host municipality’s year-round community — working families, seniors, young professionals looking for a foothold. In seasonal communities like Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket, however, we know that unrestricted market-rate units simply do not serve our year-round community housing needs. Thus, in exchange for a relatively small number of affordable units, a 40B developer can develop a significant number of luxury units that fail to deliver housing solutions for our residents. This kind of development also worsens our housing challenges: Increasing luxury inventory drives up the cost of property Island-wide and expands population in a way that demands the support of more municipal and other services, requiring more workers, who in turn require more housing.
In its 50-year history, the MVC has approved all but two 40B developments of regional impact — Edgartown Gardens and Southern Woodlands — at least in part because those projects proposed predominantly unrestricted market-rate units. The numerous 40B projects approved by the MVC have provided significantly more affordable units than the bare statutory minimum required by Chapter 40B; indeed, every single locally generated 40B project and every single town-sponsored 40B project has been approved because it specifically addressed the housing needs of this Island by providing predominantly — and frequently 100 percent — deed-restricted, year-round affordable and community housing.
It is important to also note that outside of the Chapter 40B context, the MVC consistently works toward the creation of housing for Island residents. Through conditions on developments of regional impact, the MVC has created at least 500 income-restricted units and other affordable and workforce housing opportunities and required payment of more than $4.8 million for affordable housing entities, including the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority, Habitat for Humanity, and town affordable housing communities. MVC staff worked at state level to research, draft, and advance the tools that form the “seasonal communities designation” toolkit for the Island towns, and continue to secure millions of dollars in state funding and technical support for local housing efforts.
Notably, the MVC recently approved the 116-unit Green Villa 40B project, which shares a common developer with Edgartown Gardens. However, 100 percent of the units in Green Villa are restricted to year-round residency; 90 percent are income-restricted at affordable and attainable levels; nine provide public sector employee preference as allowable under the new seasonal communities designation, offering desperately needed housing opportunities for essential municipal and school district staff. In contrast, Edgartown Gardens offered only 11 affordable units to 44 market-rate units, refusing to consent to the MVC’s request that the market-rate units be restricted to year-round occupancy, refusing to heed the town of Edgartown’s repeated pleas that the project include units for public sector employees, and digging in on its initial proposal to meet only the bare minimum affordable-unit requirements necessary for 40B eligibility. If this developer were truly serious about addressing the affordability crisis on the Island, it would spend less time criticizing the MVC’s process and more time working with the town of Edgartown and the MVC to deliver a project that actually delivers needed housing solutions for Island residents.
Laura Silber is the Martha’s Vineyard Commission’s Island housing planner and the regional planning representative to the Massachusetts Seasonal Communities Advisory Council.