A long-anticipated plan for affordable housing near the YMCA in Oak Bluffs is taking another step forward this week, with the top two developers bidding for the project’s initial phase slated to make their cases.
Island Housing Trust and Roxbury-based Onyx Group are scheduled to give presentations Friday during a 3 p.m. online public meeting, which will include a question and answer period after each pitch.
“The town has owned that 7.88 acres next to the ice rink for a long time [and] it’s always been the plan that the property be used for affordable housing,” said Mark Leonard, who chairs the Oak Bluffs affordable housing committee.
In June, the select board voted unanimously to issue a request for proposals to develop 25 housing units on the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road parcel.
The competing presentations will be scored and tabulated by a committee of town officials who will make their recommendation to the select board next month, Mr. Leonard told the Gazette. The target move-in date is early 2024, he said.
A second phase, which would add another 35 affordable housing units behind the first-phase location, hinges on an upcoming town meeting vote. Oak Bluffs voters will be asked at a special town meeting Nov. 9 to petition the state legislature for special home rule legislation to execute a land swap. The town wants to trade 24 town-owned acres off County Road in the area known as The Preserve for a similar-sized parcel near the ice arena now owned by the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank.
The developer who wins the initial contract will be obliged to build a road from the existing 7.88-acre housing site to the landlocked parcel now owned by the land back which is directly behind it, Mr. Leonard said.
Wastewater services for the sites will also be a two-phase project, Mr. Leonard said, with the initial 25-unit development using an enhanced septic system.
“The Oak Bluffs sewage system doesn’t quite have the capacity we need yet,” he said. “Hopefully by the time [the second development] gets in place, the town will have that additional capacity.”
As the affordable housing committee worked on the request for proposals earlier this year, it held a series of public listening sessions, Mr. Leonard said.
“We took the public input and used it . . . as part of the objectives [for the developers],” he said, adding that he hopes Oak Bluffs residents will also turn out for the online presentations on Friday as well as for the special town meeting Nov. 9.
“It’s important to get people out,” he said. “The public needs to get involved.”
Article five on the town meeting warrant asks voters to authorize the affordable housing committee to proceed with the affordable housing bids for the 7.88-acre property.
Article six on the special town meeting warrant concerns a separate affordable housing proposal, asking voters to designate a 4.9-acre piece of town-owned land at County Road and Jessica Lane to house Island veterans.
Article seven seeks voter approval to petition the state legislature for the 24-acre parcel swap with the land bank.
These are just some of the housing projects the town has in the works, said Mr. Leonard, who joined the affordable housing committee two years ago.
“Last year the town gave Habitat for Humanity two properties [and] they’re just about ready to start building on the first one,” he said.
Another project will add two housing units on the first floor of the Noyes building on Circuit avenue, where Conroy’s pharmacy formerly operated, using a state grant for the architectural work, Mr. Leonard said.
“Now we’re actually making progress,” he said.
