Island Elderly Housing has sued the Martha’s Vineyard Commission following the conditional approval early this summer of a small affordable housing development for senior Islanders.
Approved by the MVC in mid-June as a development of regional impact (DRI), Aidylberg 3 would add a third five-unit complex to the two existing Aidylberg facilities situated off Wing Road in Oak Bluffs. But in a complaint filed in Dukes County superior court last week, attorneys for Island Elderly Housing (IEH) said conditions imposed by the commission — chiefly one requiring a complete redesign of the facility and a second one requiring the use of electric heat pumps — would pose an undue burden on the nonprofit. IEH relies on public funding and private donations for its projects, which primarily serve low-income Islanders.
“IEH does not have an open-ended budget to accommodate MVC’s preferred energy system,” the nine-page complaint says in part, referring to the heat pump requirement.
The project is planned at the site of a circa 1900 home that formerly belonged to Marguerite Bergstrom, a founder of IEH who died in 2003 and had gifted the property to the organization. The project landed in front of the commission as a DRI after the house was torn down without required prior approval from the MVC. But during public hearings this past winter and spring, the unpermitted demolition took a back seat while commissioners focused on the design and energy efficiency of the building, which they felt were inadequate.
Hearing proceedings were paused at one point while commissioners offered the applicant staff assistance to rework the plan, but IEH spokesmen declined the offer.
On June 13 the commission voted 7-5 with two abstentions to approve the plan. Commission chairman Joan Malkin introduced the condition requiring a redesigned building that incorporates elements of the demolished structure, among other things.
“We want it to fit in with the vernacular of the neighborhood,” she said in part at the meeting.
Commissioner Ben Robinson called the plan “mediocre” and pushed for more energy efficiency.
In the court complaint, IEH attorneys expressly note that the plan has the support of the town and is being funded in part by Community Preservation Act money. They also note that the plan was created under chapter 40B, the state law that eases many zoning requirements for affordable housing projects. And while chapter 40B projects cannot bypass review by the MVC, the complaint said the commission nevertheless exceeded its authority because it did “not take into account the balance codified in chapter 40B between ‘local concerns’ like the aesthetic and/or environmental concerns … and the imposition of conditions that render the development of the project ‘uneconomic’.”
The complaint was filed August 19. IEH is being represented by Christopher J. Alphen and Mark Bobrowski of Blatman, Bobrowski, Haverty & Silverstein in Concord.
The lawsuit marks the second time this year that the commission has been challenged in court over conditions for approval on a DRI. Last month the commission settled out of court with the Harbor View Hotel after it had sued over a set of conditions that accompanied the approval of a complicated expansion plan at the hotel.
To resolve that litigation, the commission revised its written decision, including modifying the conditions.
