The Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC) has been fighting to keep its authority over development on the Island since April.
After a state ruling by the Massachusetts Housing Appeals Committee (HAC) stripped the MVC of its ability to review projects proposed under a state statute that calls for a percentage of the project to include affordable housing in exchange for local zoning exemptions. c, Commissioners are appealing the decision.
But during a Tuesday panel for the League of Women Voters of Martha’s Vineyard, there was a shift in how acutely the HAC decision regarding jurisdiction over the state statute known as Chapter 40B was felt, and what it could mean for the future of the Island if it holds. Commissioners underscored the vital importance of the appeal’s success.
The nonpartisan voter’s league, which holds panels for electoral candidates prior to elections, invited both the MVC and Dukes County commissioners members who are seeking re-election this fall to communicate with attendees in the Edgartown library.
M.V. commissioners began the panel by outlining their values and their accomplishments, but Islanders mostly wanted to know about the HAC ruling that deemed the MVC a “local board” instead of a regional one. Many in the audience expressed confusion about what the ruling means for the MVC.
Commissioners discussed the state decision, which has cast the future of the regional planning board into deeper and unknown waters, as more dire than it had been before for those tasked with reviewing large developments.
“If we don’t win an appeal, this could be the demise of the Island,” Oak Bluffs Commissioner Brian Smith said. He and other commissioners noted that while that may sound dramatic, there was truth in the claim.
“It is absolutely critical to the health of the Island and to controlling growth,” West Tisbury Commissioner Doug Sederholm said of the MVC’s jurisdiction.
The HAC ruling effectively stripped the MVC’s jurisdiction over Chapter 40B housing development proposals. Chapter 40B is a state statute that allows housing developers to curb local zoning if a quarter of the units in their plan are affordable. In other words, if a project falls under Chapter 40B, the regulatory power of local boards is limited. The ruling stemmed from the MVC’s unanimous denial of a local Chapter 40B proposed for Edgartown.
Until this ruling, the MVC was the only board on the Island that was able to weigh the benefits and detriments of Chapter 40B projects the same way as every other proposal that is not a 40B. As chair Peter Wharton put it in an essay, the MVC is “the first line of defense against overdevelopment.”
“I believe the MVC is essential,” Commissioner Mike MacKenty said on Tuesday. “Over the years, it has helped guide development.”
But MacKenty said that has gotten “exponentially more difficult” as the MVC faces “deep-pocketed developers” and ongoing litigation. As he put it, it’s a clash between “people who see the Island as an investment, not a place to build a home.”
The ruling by HAC and pending litigation from developers has thrown a wrench into the ever-churning wheel of deliberation on Chapter 40B projects planned for the Vineyard. While the MVC filed an appeal of the ruling in early summer, commissioners said on Tuesday that if it’s not overturned, the effects on the regional planning board could be catastrophic.
The state statute was primarily designed for a city, where apartment buildings are built to the skyline and developments are frequent. When Chapter 40B was created in 1969, it was meant to ensure that at least some of the units in large developments would be available at affordable rates. State legislators recognized that market-rate units are needed in order to pay for the affordable units. The state defines affordable housing as units available to those earning 80 percent or less of the area median income, which in Dukes County is an annual income of up to $74,800 for an individual.
Developments with only units that are rented at affordable rates usually do not make financial sense to build, unless grants, donors, or subsidies are involved. Construction costs are rising for both labor and materials, and Chapter 40Bs were supposed to be a creative solution to a complicated problem in low housing affordability and the high cost of building.
However, in rural areas, where development is less frequent and lower than sky-high, Chapter 40B is even more nuanced.
The events leading up to the HAC ruling involved Edgartown Gardens, a proposed development near the Triangle and next to Donaroma’s Nursery in Edgartown. Edgartown Gardens is a prime example of the complicated nature of Chapter 40Bs in a rural zone — the proposal was for a 60-unit apartment complex in a congested area on two acres of land, 11 units of which would be available at affordable rates. That left 49 units at market rates.
Edgartown Gardens, Sederholm said on Tuesday, was a “commercial development” that “would’ve caused a real problem.”
In deliberation on Edgartown Gardens, the commissioners argued that the number of affordable units didn’t make up for the detrimental impact of the project on the Island. They unanimously denied it last October. William Cumming, a developer behind the project, then went to the HAC with his legal representation, filed a complaint, and the HAC investigated the denial.
“We rarely actually deny something, but if we do, it’s usually for pretty good reasons. So I just want to make it very clear that we are not opposed to Chapter 40B developments. We just want to be able to review them and make sure that if they’re going to be approved, that they’re conditioned so that they’re in the best interest of the Island,” Sederholm said Tuesday.
Since the nature of Chapter 40Bs grants the developer exemptions from local zoning, the HAC decision to deem the MVC a “local board,” and therefore overriding their jurisdiction to approve or deny those projects, was not an unusual one.
Commissioners argued that the decision did, however, negate the MVC’s reviewing power and the unique challenges the Island community faces of limited land and luxury and market-rate desirability. The state ruling also constructively granted approval for Edgartown Gardens.
“Given the housing crisis in Massachusetts, attacking 40B is a really tough thing for us to do,” Sederholm said. But commissioners said that on the Island, Chapter 40Bs should be evaluated like any other development. Here, they said, a few affordable units within a larger market rate development is simply not enough. The MVC is more interested in approving projects that have a measurable and impactful gain of affordable and year-round housing, as per its track record.
Sederholm added it would drive their appeal forward if the legislature testified they were not a “local board,” but a regional one, but “so far, those efforts have been fruitless.”
A new candidate for the MVC, Fred Khedouri, said on Tuesday, “It’s going to take a certain amount of courage to be blunt” with developers and seasonal visitors who have enormous wealth. Khedouri said when wealthy visitors attempt to “extract value from the Island” by purchasing land and houses for the purpose of making even more money, “it’s not going to help anybody who lives here.”
“I think there’s a whole raft of challenges that will come up, and people just have to be willing to stand up and willing to be a target,” Khedouri said. “That’s what it takes to try to protect the values that I think are shared by virtually all of us here.”
Year-rounders on Martha’s Vineyard continue to grapple with a crisis in affordability, spurred by a local housing market highly desirable for investment buyers, developers, and seasonal visitors. This year, more than 60 percent of homes on the Island are lived in for two months or less.
While the limited amount of land on the Island is of great concern to regional planners like the commissioners, it’s those limitations that make property so valuable. Less availability often means the value appreciates over time.
“We, as an Island, are at a tipping point,” Commissioner Bernadette Cormie said on Tuesday.
