The conversion of a residential house in West Tisbury to workforce housing for a seasonal Christian camp was approved by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC) last week.
The workforce housing was proposed by FOCUS, or the Fellowship of Christians in Universities and Schools. FOCUS, which has operated seasonally on the Vineyard for 50 years, draws up to 700 campgoers from May to August each year to a 30-acre campus to engage with structured activities and leisure time, according to the group’s website.
In 1995, the entire camp was approved by the MVC as a development of regional impact (DRI). A DRI is defined as a large-scale development or change of use that could substantially affect the area a project is proposed in and the Island as a whole, from factors like community character to potential environmental degradation.
Commissioners unanimously voted on Nov. 5 against a public hearing for the project and decided the benefits of workforce housing units will outweigh potential detrimental impacts on the surrounding area. West Tisbury Commissioner Doug Sederholm recused himself from review of the project.
When the conversion to workplace housing, which includes a main house for eight occupants and a guest house for four occupants, was presented to the West Tisbury Zoning Board of Appeals in April, abutters of the project sounded multiple alarms.
The home in question is at 420 Lambert’s Cove Road, next to Seth’s Pond. It has a main and guest house. The organization purchased the property last September from Ellen French Bunch and Doyle L. Bunch for $4.25 million.
Abutters’ concerns were largely about the pond — both the environmental impact of increased septic use near it and the sound that would carry over the water to neighboring homes. Plus, the Lambert’s Cove property is located on the James Pond Watershed, which is impaired. Zoning board members decided to refer the project to the MVC for review of environmental and housing impact on the area, as well as because it was a modification to an existing DRI.
“All we have is a change of use from a private residential use to a dormitory use. That’s all we’re looking at. And does that have a regional impact?” Chilmark commissioner Joan Malkin said at the Nov. 5 meeting.
Many MVC members said they believe concerns raised about FOCUS by abutters came down to the growth of the camp over the decades. Commissioners were reviewing one residential property proposed as workplace housing, and in that one home, they said, there was little impact. But they urged FOCUS to reach out to abutters about their other worries separately from an MVC review.
Laura Silber, MVC housing planner, and Dan Doyle, MVC special projects planner, found there were significant benefits of housing and open space in FOCUS’s proposed use of the home.
“The structure as workforce housing may be considered by the MVC as more directly meeting a community need than the previous use of the residence,” Silber said, because the residential home could’ve been a short-term rental.
While commissioners deemed some abutters’ concerns as overblown, several issues may remain for town officials to consider.
“The issue is that a lot has changed since 1995, and so with the use of the house, I’m wondering if the septic needs to be updated,” Aquinnah commissioner Jannette Vanderhoop said. “It’s a lot of people, and I think that it’s really close to the pond, so I think that might have been one of the biggest reasons that we were interested in reviewing it.”
