The long and meandering debate over Katama Meadows in Edgartown, and its earlier iteration as Meeting House Way, teaches us a lesson in how conservation and affordable housing may work together. The project has been before the Martha’s Vineyard Commission since 2017, when two developers from Utah, with little apparent connection to Island history, culture, and traditions, applied for a permit to build homes on a 54-acre wooded lot. The affair provides a lesson about smart growth to ensure sustainable development and conservation of primary habitat on Martha’s Vineyard.
It has become increasingly, even exceedingly, expensive to own or rent a home here. The figures are bewildering. The Boston Globe reported figures supplied by the Warren Group, a real estate research organization, that are devastating: “In Oak Bluffs, the median single-family sale price ran just under $635,000 in 2018 … By 2025, it had more than doubled to about $1.29 million, and through the first half of 2026, it stood at roughly $1.32 million. Edgartown followed the same arc, from $800,000 to $1.7 million last year, and Tisbury nearly matched Oak Bluffs dollar for dollar.”
Growth and development strain the Island’s resources, especially when they run into ill-conceived plans like Katama Meadows. The Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC) reviewed the Katama Meadows’s plans four times in the past nine years. Of the 52 projected homes, the original proposal was to construct 26 market-rate houses as big as 4,000 square feet. Most owners would likely use them only in the summer months. Meantime, the MVC ruled that they could not be used as short-term rentals. Twelve lots would be reserved for those earning a middle income, and a mere 14 may become affordable housing units.
The development would not alleviate the affordable housing problems most Vineyarders face today. The Island confronts several threats to the environment, water quality, wastewater capacity, and many others when Martha’s Vineyard faces developments like this one, even those with conditions. The Great Pond Foundation has especially noted in its letter to the MVC that Edgartown Great Pond’s ecosystem may well be endangered by pollution generated by the Katama Meadows project.
Two years ago, the commission undertook, along with the Army Corps of Engineers, “a carrying capacity” study, in their words, to “help identify thresholds and metrics for growth management in the years ahead.” The study promised to determine how growth impacts the Island’s infrastructure, such as water quality, wastewater resources, roads, and other matters like this. Readers should be aware that Martha’s Vineyard is about the same size as Staten Island, N.Y., which is fully developed, with little open space. Martha’s Vineyard can avoid development that could well lead to a Staten Island lookalike.
This year is the 40th anniversary of the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank, an organization devoted to allowing public access to conserved land across the Island. Its mission is clearly spelled out: “Environmental protection leads the list of Land Bank goals, with public use encouraged where and when possible. Trails avoid sensitive areas, signs advise of special precautions visitors need take, and rangers are hired when necessary to oversee use.”
Some local real estate brokers think the Land Bank has conserved too much land that could be used for residential or commercial purposes. In fact, the Land Bank has permitted the use of some of its holdings for residential use. As Executive Director James Lengyel puts it, setting aside appropriate properties for affordable housing has been “positive and very fruitful.” It has partnered at times with the Island Housing Trust, an organization dedicated to providing affordable housing throughout the Island.
The best way to balance conservation with affordable housing is embedded in the housing policy of the Vineyard Conservation Society (VCS). VCS has identified some 13,500 acres of undeveloped land left on the Island. The organization contends that most of it should remain protected and uninhabited, especially those sensitive habitats that comprise what is special about the Vineyard. Four years ago, VCS developed an affordable housing policy that should stand as a model for MVC and potential developers.
VCS favors affordable housing along these lines: “Development should be undertaken in the already built environment, to avoid contributing to suburban sprawl and undermining natural resources and climate resiliency. Ideally, affordable residential development should target existing structures, for example office buildings, and old housing in need of renovation.” Ideally, there should be “no new development of any kind … sited on mapped prime agricultural soils, ancient woodlands, or … important habitat for flora and fauna. These include priority lands identified by state agencies tasked with biodiversity preservation.”
VCS supports the use of nitrogen-reducing septic systems in all new construction: “To mitigate impacts on water pollution, all new construction (and renovations that increase occupancy) should either be tied into central sewer systems or use nitrogen-reducing septic systems.” Because it is important to reduce air pollution from vehicles using gasoline or diesel, VCS suggests that affordable housing units be sited near Vineyard Transit Authority bus lines that regularly run throughout the Island.
Affordable housing and conservation exist in an uneasy alliance. But they can have a reciprocal relationship if residents and seasonal visitors have the will to prevent environmental devastation that may potentially transpire, like the one proposed in the Katama Meadows development.
Jack Fruchtman, who lives in Aquinnah, is a member of the board of directors and executive committee of the Vineyard Conservation Society. The views expressed here are his own, and not necessarily those of VCS.
