The Martha’s Vineyard Commission met Thursday to continue its public hearing on the controversial Green Villa condominium complex, which would create 100 income-restricted ownership apartments and four retail units on Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road in Oak Bluffs.
The hearing, which began last month, lasted nearly two and a half hours before hearing officer Doug Sederholm continued it again to next month.
The nearly eight-acre Green Villa property is bounded by Gamba Road to the east, a residential lot to the north and the future Southern Tier apartment complex to the west.
Applicants William Cumming and Chris Miller are seeking a comprehensive permit from Oak Bluffs under the terms of Chapter 40B, a state law that eases some zoning restrictions for developments that include affordable housing.
The town referred the project to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission last year and has been fighting the developers on other fronts, including a lawsuit in Dukes County Superior Court and an appeal to the state’s Housing Appeal Committee over the application of Chapter 40B.
As proposed, Green Villa would deed-restrict the sales of 25 apartments — 21 with one bedroom and four with three bedrooms — to year-round owners earning no more than 80 per cent of the area median income.
The other 75 apartments also would be permanently restricted for year-round occupancy by Island residents, with at least half of them set aside for buyers earning up to 150 per cent of the median income.
While this income cap does not meet the state’s definition for affordable housing, Mr. Cumming said it provides ownership opportunities for mid-income Islanders who are shut out of the market for existing homes by seasonal residents with deeper pockets.
“The median income to median house price … is distorted on this Island,” he said. “It’s about 13 times house price to median.”
Mr. Cumming and Mr. Miller aim to sell the rest of the Green Villa units — up to 31 one-bedroom apartments and up to six with three bedrooms — to Island businesses for employee housing.
Parking is planned at 210 spaces: 144 for the housing complex and 66 for the commercial buildings fronting Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road.
Short-term rentals of the apartments would be prohibited and a state-certified agent would monitor compliance with the deed restrictions, which would make violators subject to the forced sale of their units.
Green Villa does not qualify for public subsidies, Mr. Cumming said, but it still must meet state requirements under Chapter 40B, such as building some three-bedroom apartments along with the smaller units.
While much of Thursday’s MVC meeting focused on the nuts-and-bolts aspects of the plan, such as building and landscape design, lighting and traffic, it also included a passionate rebuttal of the developers’ proposal by former commissioner Joan Malkin.
“It’s just way, way too big for this Island,” Ms. Malkin said, noting that the next-largest development, nearby Woodside Village with 95 units on seven acres, is tucked back into the woods and not visible from Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road.
Ms. Malkin also disagreed with the developers’ assertion that the housing is for Island residents, saying it would only attract more people to move here from the mainland.
“I’m not saying we should pull up the drawbridge. But it’s more of a question of how much more attractive do you make living here when we don’t have enough space as it is. We don’t have enough resources as it is,” she said.
“We’re going to be widening roads. We’re going to be building their schools. We’re going to be adding rooms onto the hospital … and it’s a problem,” Ms. Malkin said.
