To the Editor:
I’m writing as a resident of Oak Bluffs to share my concerns about the Katama Meadows development proposal, and to say something about why the Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC) itself matters so much to me.
The MVC exists because no single town board can be expected to weigh a project’s impact on the whole Island, the water we all drink, the ponds we all fish and swim in, the roads we all sit in traffic on. That’s the entire point of the development of regional impact process. Katama Meadows is a real test of whether that process works the way it’s supposed to.
What draws me — and I think what draws most people — to this Island is precisely what large-scale development erodes: clean water, open land, working farms and fields, and a slower pace of life that depends on all of us keeping growth in proportion to what the land and infrastructure can actually support. If projects like Katama Meadows continue to be approved, we will lose all of this. We already see the Great Ponds being covered in harmful algae blooms due to excess nitrogen runoff from houses, beaches becoming smaller and smaller due to erosion, and once-open spaces becoming overrun by new houses, shops, and parking lots.
If Katama Meadows is approved by the MVC, we will see these effects in double time. The traffic will get worse, a project of this size will add cars to roads that are already at capacity in the summer, and will make an already stressed ferry reservation system even harder for residents to navigate. The habitat that supports hundreds of rare and threatened species will be gone, leaving them with nowhere else on the Island to go. The community and character will also be threatened; growth at this scale does not just affect the environment, it also costs the town in infrastructure, emergency services, and school capacity.
I want the MVC to know that many residents — myself included — stand firmly behind them. The right decision for Martha’s Vineyard shouldn’t be made under the shadow of a lawsuit. Thank you.
Maija Kastrud
Oak Bluffs
