In the brightly lit Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC) meeting room for four Thursday nights so far this summer, deliberation on the 54-acre subdivision development proposal in Edgartown, Katama Meadows, has oscillated between the need for a few affordable homes and the potential impacts of a sprawling development. It also raised questions about how much the MVC can, or should, change a housing proposal to align with the character and capacity of Martha’s Vineyard.
As conditions are weighed and voted on by commissioners, several points keep coming up in discussions. The commissioners have wondered whether redesigning the project is pertinent to their positions and worry that the lack of visual examples of the proposed homes is making this project increasingly difficult to get a read on. It’s one of the largest proposals the MVC has ever had to consider, and the stakes are high. Any approval from the MVC, a regional planning group, informs the future of development on the Island.
“If we want to redesign, if we want to reprogram, we should get a consistent vision for this,” Michael Kim, the governor’s appointee to the commission, said at Thursday’s meeting. Designing by conditions, he said, is not the way forward.
“I think the applicant should be redesigning, but I don’t think we should be redesigning,” Chilmark Commissioner Joan Malkin added.
But Doug Sederholm, West Tisbury commissioner, said there’s a point to the many conditions that are being imposed on the developer, should the project be eventually approved. Creating conditions based on the facts at hand, while ensuring that they’re well-researched and defensible, is necessary, he said, because “there is no doubt whatsoever that there will be an appeal” by the developers.
Katama Meadows, located off Meetinghouse Way and Division Road, is a proposal by Utah developers Richard Matthews and Douglas Anderson. The pair purchased the land for $6.6 million in 2017. The Katama Meadows development plan is now in its fourth iteration and involved in a long deliberation with the MVC. Before going before the MVC, the proposal was revised and ultimately signed off on by the Edgartown affordable housing committee.
In the design that landed on commissioners’ desks at the beginning of deliberations in July, Katama Meadows featured 26 market rate homes, 14 “affordable community” lots that will be donated to Edgartown (with one of those lots going to Habitat for Humanity), 10 “affordable and attainable” year-round lots, and two “affordable and attainable” year-round lots for Habitat for Humanity.
But at a MVC meeting in late July, a condition was approved that cut seven lots out of the allocated market-rate units, bringing the total homes that could be approved from 52 to 45. Commissioners argued this condition aligned the project with the benefit of affordable housing more. The market-rate homes are allowed to be built up to 4,000 feet (per the proposal), with an estimated asking price of $5 million, according to the commissioners this Thursday. Many commissioners pointed out that the Island is not in need of more market rate homes, but is in dire need of more affordable housing for locals.
On Thursday night, more conditions were raised than the 15 that were already decided on previously, and some were approved. The conditions that were voted through include that any fertilized gardens will be limited to 1,000 square feet, and only organic fertilizer can be used. No fertilizers can be used on lawns and herbicides and pesticides must be used minimally and in accordance with state law. Another regarded energy usage and solar arrays and mandated that they be installed on each home.
A condition that banned swimming pools for market rate homes was also passed by commissioners. They also voted that no more than three market rate lots can be sold until the four community housing lots, the three Habitat for Humanity lots, and all attainable lots are sold. They argued this ensures that the benefit of affordable housing happens within an acceptable time frame.
In the past year, the Katama Meadows project has received criticism from conservation groups, housing advocates, and Islanders for its impact on the environment, especially because it abuts Edgartown Great Pond. Support for the project largely comes from the town of Edgartown and local fire department. The attainable and community lots will first be available to municipal employees and public-sector employees.
The deliberations and conditions for Katama Meadows were continued by Martha’s Vineyard Commissioners Thursday. The next meeting on the project is September 24. If the development is approved by the MVC, the project still needs to get approval from the Edgartown zoning board.
