A recommended affordable housing contribution may end the Menotomy project in Oak Bluffs, leaving the Red Cat Kitchen without a home.
At a Martha’s Vineyard Commission (MVC) land use planning committee meeting (LUPC) Monday, commissioner Joan Malkin and Red Cat building co-owner Brian Packish got into a tense back-and-forth over what the project’s affordable housing contribution should be.
Commissioners voted to recommend the full commission consider the project as having an increase of two units — which would require the project to have an affordable housing mitigation of $110,000.
At issue is the determined increase of residential units. The project proposes constructing four single-bedroom, market-rate apartments on the two floors above. Currently, the building has three rooms, but commissioner Joan Malkin said that’s up to interpretation.
“You could say there was one incremental unit if you consider the existing stuff on the upper floor as three units,” Malkin said. “Or you consider there are two incremental units if you consider that leaking room that’s currently used as a storeroom that is not currently habitable.
“Or you could say because there’s only one lease presently for the unit on the second floor and it is treated as a single unit, and there’s one renter, you could say that’s the existing one,” Malkin added. “Or you could say, no, all four of them are new because the whole place is … I know someone is living there, but it’s kind of not very habitable.”
Packish said he would withdraw his application if his project was considered to have an increase of two units.
“We should just stop the conversation and I should withdraw the application,” Packish said.
“Would you please wait until we finish?” commissioner Joan Malkin said.
“I just don’t want you to waste your time,” Packish responded.
Commissioners then told Packish he was welcome to withdraw his application, but advised that this was only a recommendation to the full commission, who would make the ultimate decision.
“I just think it would be a shame to lose this project and just have another … hotel,” commissioner Richard Toole said. Toole later changed his decision, saying he felt that the project was only increasing the number of units by one.
Other commissioners felt differently. “I find it difficult for him to essentially hold us hostage,” Malkin said.
“I call it being honest,” Packish replied. “I think you’re used to people coming in here and lying to you on a regular basis, and then doing what they want.”
Commissioners and Packish then began talking over each other.
“I’m hard-pressed at this moment to think of an applicant that has come before us and lied. I think that is unfair to your fellow Islanders,” Malkin said.
Packish said it would be a “very easy thing to do” to expose applicants that have lied to the commission, but did not elaborate.
Malkin said she didn’t view the project’s housing as meeting the Island’s needs.
“What is being provided is housing that does not serve the current housing needs on the Island,” Malkin said. “Short-term seasonal rentals … is certainly not where the greatest need is. The greatest need is for year-round housing, affordable housing, community housing, elderly housing, so I don’t view his housing element as making a contribution to the housing needs on-Island.”
But Malkin added that she wanted to recommend to the full commission to vote in favor of the project.
Speaking to The Times by phone Wednesday, MVC executive director Adam Turner said he did not know what Packish was referring to when he said the commission has been lied to.
“This development is moving through the process. The applicant certainly has his rights,” Turner said. “I respect all applicants … past, present, and future.”
The project is the first mixed-use commercial development under the MVC’s new affordable housing policy. The new policy is aimed at incentivizing developers to construct affordable housing units instead of paying mitigation fees.
The project is calling for an additional 568 nonresidential square footage, which would require a $22,720 mitigation fee, based on the MVC’s formula.
At the project’s public hearing last month, Christine Flynn, the MVC’s affordable housing planner, estimated that the appraised cost of one of the proposed residential apartments could be $550,000, requiring a $220,000 mitigation fee. The formula is 10 percent x four new units x the $550,000 appraised value. Combined, the total recommended monetary fee would be $247,720. The apartments still have to be officially appraised by an outside appraiser, and the full commission would have to decide how many rooms the project is adding.
Packish requested to have both fees waived, and instead offered a onetime mitigation of $50,000 to be donated to an Island housing nonprofit — an amount closer to what the MVC would determine for an increase of one unit (10 percent x one new unit x a $550,000 appraised value).
Speaking to The Times by phone on Wednesday, Packish said there are three existing and documented bedrooms in the building, and the new project is adding one new bedroom while removing three seats in the restaurant. If the commission determines otherwise, Packish said, there will be no restaurant. He added that the project, which has always been permitted by the town as three bedrooms, is only increasing the number of rooms by one.
“We have no other choice, we won’t be able to build the project,” Packish said. “We will redesign and come back as a modification, and the modification will no longer include the restaurant component. It’s just not financially viable.”
Packish added that if the commission decides the project should be driven by a housing donation, then building a hotel is the most financially lucrative model. He also said there may be a middle ground between the $50,000 offer he made and the likely $110,000 estimate the commission determines.
The LUPC was unanimous in saying the project was a benefit to the downtown and the Island community. With the recommendation set, the full commission will make its deliberation and decision on the project on March 19 at 7 pm at the MVC offices.
“We’re cautiously optimistic the full commission will weigh all of the benefits and detriments,” Packish said.
Malkin and Turner are either ignorant or naive if they’re unaware of what others have done. Good for Brian for not being bullied. $247,720 is Mob money demanded a thuggish MVC. Knee-capping should be called out. And Brian should demand an accounting of where previous “donations” have gone.
The full commission should reject the number of $110,000 and accept the $50,000 offered by the project owners.
To demand fee so exorbitant that it would force the stakeholders to find a restaurant financially unviable and instead move towards a hotel would create a situation contrary to the goals of the MVC.
How does putting an well established restaurant out of business help housing on the Vineyard? I would argue that it hurts the needs of islanders far more than it helps.
Here we go again ‘the commission’ getting in the way of progress, there’s something new. 50k is more than generous!
This is insane.
I understand the MVC trying to help housing but the problem is they have no rules or standards so every project before them has no idea what to expect. When there are no rules every decision becomes a political one.