The West Tisbury Farmers’ Market will continue to operate at the Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Society on Panhandle Road, following a unanimous vote by the town zoning board of appeals Thursday night.
“Exactly what the Ag Society should be doing and exactly where the farmers’ market belongs,” ZBA vice chairman Julius Lowe said, as he cast his vote for an open-ended special permit allowing the market to make Panhandle Road its new home.
A crowd of about 20 farmers and their allies cheered the decision, which followed a nearly 75-minute public hearing at Howes House.
Held for decades at Grange Hall on State Road, the farmers market received emergency permission to operate at the Agricultural Society in 2020, and again in 2021, because the board of health determined the Grange site was too small for safety during the pandemic.
The roomier surroundings of the society fairgrounds have not only provided space for social distancing, but also enabled the market to add new vendors.
“It’s proved a far more successful location, based on space,” market co-manager Elana Carlson said during Thursday’s hearing.
Holding the twice-a-week summer event at the Agricultural Society — where it already operates indoors weekly in the fall and winter — also eases traffic congestion in the town center, market farmer Emily Fischer added.
“It’s better for the town [and] it is safer for the public who are attending,” Ms. Fischer said.
But with emergency board of health measures no longer in effect, Ms. Carlson and co-manager Tucker Pforzheimer — along with the dozens of farmers they represent — have found themselves in limbo amid lingering questions about whether the retail market meets the conditions of an agricultural preservation restriction (APR) covering the society grounds.
To ease concerns about wear and tear on the site, Agricultural Society executive director Lauren Lynch last month proposed new configurations for both market vendors and customer parking.
The vendors will now set up in the area used by vendors at the August fair, and public parking will move from the hay field to the vendor parking area along with nearby sites that are not part of the APR.
The changes were well received earlier in the week by the town conservation commission, which holds the preservation restriction jointly with the Vineyard Conservation Society.
“That’s the kind of plan we hoped for when VCS and the conservation commission jointly expressed concerns,” the commission wrote in a letter of support adopted Tuesday to send the Agricultural Society.
On Thursday, the zoning board of appeals looked first at whether the market should be referred to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission as a development of regional impact (DRI), before voting 4-0-1 against a referral.
Board chairman Lawrence Schubert abstained from the vote on whether to refer to the MVC as a precaution in the case of future legal action, he said.
“As chairman . . . I will be the one sitting in the chair in court, answering anybody who comes along and says how come you thought the buck stopped here,” said Mr. Schubert, who later voted with the rest of the board in favor of the special permit.
Absent an appeal in the next 20 days, the ZBA approval was the farmers market’s final town hurdle.
The market’s first day is planned for June 11.
