For the sixth time in a row, a decision on Katama Meadows, a controversial development proposed on 54 acres in Edgartown, was pushed off by commissioners after discussion ran long.
The meeting on Thursday, Oct. 8 was another in a long saga of deliberation by commissioners. The Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC) has been reviewing Katama Meadows for months, and there’s no indication yet whether the project will be approved or denied. But so far, many elements of the proposal weighed by the MVC have been seen as either a detriment or neutral to the environment and Island community. The project, on the other hand, hasn’t often been viewed as beneficial to the Island throughout the discussions.
The MVC is a regional planning body tasked with weighing the benefits and detriments of large development projects, and any decision they make sets a precedent for future developers. Now that the MVC has completed discussion on conditions and analyzing each area of impact, they must deliberate on the project as a whole; only then will a decision be made.
The discussion was tense Thursday. Chilmark commissioner Joan Malkin suggested some conditions of the proposal be clarified based on what is in the record. She was backed by Tisbury commissioner Ben Robinson. West Tisbury commissioner Doug Sederholm and Oak Bluffs commissioner Brian Smith pushed back against their assertions.
“Why are we revisiting testimony?” Sederholm asked.
“Because I went back, and I realized that I do not think that what is up there is in the record. And this is not my opinion,” Malkin said of testimony and project details around municipal housing on the screen above commissioners.
“What Joan is suggesting here makes a whole lot of sense. Let’s just state accurately what is in the record,” Robinson said. “What’s the resistance here?”
“Take the temperature down a little bit,” MVC chair Peter Wharton said to the room after another discussion about the record and workplace housing units at Katama Meadows. “We’re on the same team … It’s in our interest to make sure the record is complete.”
“This document’s been around for a long time,” Smith said. “Now we’ve already discussed these topics, and now we’re going backwards again.”
Malkin said she brought up many of the same points to Sederholm months ago, but they weren’t included in conditions prior to this meeting. She and Robinson argued that workplace housing wasn’t discussed effectively enough in previous discussions.
“I think we’re bogging down and nitpicking instead of actually considering benefits and detriments,” commissioner Linda Sibley said. “It’s important for us to keep clear in our minds that this applicant is not producing any form of housing … he’s donating lots.”
The energy in the room was representative of the controversy around Katama Meadows. Islanders and conservation groups have protested the project for its potential environmental impact and suburbanization of the area, and commissioners have spent hours trying to get the project to an acceptable place while avoiding potential litigation.
“Exactly how much benefit is there in this offer?” Sibley asked at one point in the meeting.
The commission voted that Katama Meadows would have a neutral impact on municipal services. They cited support from the Edgartown Fire Department for the potential housing for public safety employees and the Edgartown municipal employee preference for the “attainable” lots. Because those potential benefits are yet to be seen, however, they deemed the impact neutral.
In regard to taxpayer burden, commissioners found the proposal would neutrally impact the Island. They said the project would result in a modest increase in real estate tax revenues for Edgartown property owners, but that increase would be balanced by the demand for services from potential future occupants. Public facilities were also found to be of neutral impact because the proposed homes will be connected to the town’s wastewater treatment system.
With respect to the municipal general plan, which took into account the Edgartown Master Plan and Edgartown Housing Production Plan, the commission found Katama Meadows would neither aid nor interfere with the towns’ future planning.
The commissioners weighed whether Katama Meadows aligns with the “Island Plan” for a while. The Island Plan, published in 2009, is a comprehensive, 100-plus-page document that details the challenges the Vineyard community and environment faces and ways to ensure liveability in the future. Commissioners found that the subdivision proposal would have a negative impact in regard to the Island Plan.
After about three hours of discussion, commissioners decided to push further deliberation to Thursday, Oct. 15.
