The owners of a 147-year-old East Chop home had their demolition application denied by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission Thursday night.
“There’s an authenticity to history and once it’s gone, it’s gone,” said commissioner Ben Robinson.
The 8-2 decision was made without prejudice, meaning the applicants may submit updated plans without a two-year waiting period.
Eunu Chun and his wife Lisa Kim are seeking to tear down most of their summer home at 7 Arlington avenue to build a new and larger year-round residence designed by architect Chuck Sullivan.
Once part of a larger 1825 house in the Beecher Park neighborhood that was divided in two in 1917 and moved separately to 7 and 11 Arlington avenue, the structure was deemed “preferably preserved” by the Oak Bluffs historical commission in a 4-3 vote earlier this year.
The owners’ demolition application was referred to the MVC by the Oak Bluffs zoning board of appeals as a development of regional impact (DRI) last November. Following public hearings in June and August, the owners and Mr. Sullivan have made changes to the proposed new house to make it look more like the current structure. But on Thursday, a majority of MVC commissioners voted against the project.
“The applicant has come closer to addressing our original concerns [but] I don’t think they’ve gotten all the way there,” said commissioner Fred Hancock. “I believe that it is much larger than I think is appropriate for the location.”
Commissioner Linda Sibley also voted in the majority.
“Our job is to make sure that the character of the Island isn’t changed,” she said. “I do not think the replacement is sufficiently in keeping with the historical character of the neighborhood.”
Commissioners Jim Vercruysse and Brian Smith opposed the denial.
“I’m not comfortable at all designing someone’s house for them,” Mr. Vercruysse said. “We’re not designers.”
Mr. Smith also backed the owners’ application.
“Just because something’s 100 years old, for me, does not make it historic,” he said. “These people have gone through extensive effort and expense to make something that looks very close to the original.”
Doug Sederholm, who chairs the commission’s land use planning committee, has recused himself from the Arlington avenue DRI because a relative’s firm has worked for the applicants.
Citing strong personal opinions, MVC chair Joan Malkin also withdrew from discussion and voting on the application, with Mr. Vercruysse conducting the public hearing in her place.
Commissioner Ernie Thomas abstained from voting on the decision. Also voting in the majority were Jeff Agnoli, Christina Brown, Jay Grossman, Greg Martino and Michael Kim.
In other business Thursday, the commission quickly approved planned updates at two cellular towers, one on New Lane in West Tisbury and one at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport.
In each case, the MVC is constrained by the federal Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, which requires state and local government to approve modifications at existing wireless towers or base stations as long as the facilities remain roughly the same size.
The New Lane tower, which was approved as a DRI in 2013, is a monopine — an imitation tree — complete with boughs and branches that have begun weathering and falling off the 66-foot-high structure.
Early this year, the commission approved a 15-foot extension for new Verizon equipment mounts as well as cleanup of the fallen branches. The West Tisbury zoning board of appeals subsequently ordered the removal of all the branches. This week’s approval allows the cleanup and equipment installation to proceed once workers ascertain that ospreys are no longer nesting on the tower.
At the airport cell tower, the commission approved the installation of new Sprint antennas, remote radio heads — used to link transmissions between the tower and ground — and equipment cabinets.
Also Thursday, commissioners signed their written decisions approving the Vineyard Wind helicopter hangar and New England Wind undersea cables, deliberated earlier this month, and the denial of the demolition of a house at 1133 Main street in Vineyard Haven.
