Some 245 acres of land once planned for 148 houses in the rural perimeters of Edgartown were sold last week to a golf club development group, closing a key chapter in a complicated land transaction which began nearly two years ago.
Total sale price was $15.9 million. The sale resulted in a sharp spike in revenues for the week for the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank, which collected $318,000 in fees from the transaction.
The sellers included a national title insurance company and a group of former owners. The new owner of the property is the Martha’s Vineyard Golf Partners Inc. Eventually the property will be owned by the Vineyard Golf Club. Inc.
“This has been the most complicated process that I’ve ever seen in my business career,” declared Owen Larkin this week.
Mr. Larkin is the managing partner for the Martha’s Vineyard Golf Partners, and he will eventually be the first president of the Vineyard Golf Club. His group will build a private 18-hole golf club on the land off the West Tisbury Road in the outskirts of Edgartown.
The property was once planned as Vineyard Acres II, a subdivision with 148 houses. The subdivision was never developed.
The golf club project was approved by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission in July of 1999, after lengthy review as a development of regional impact (DRI).
Mr. Larkin said this week that one land transaction still remains before the golf club purchase is complete. The golf club group will pay $300,000 to the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation for four acres in the old subdivision. The money from the sale of the lots will be donated to the town of Edgartown for open space acquisition.
Once the sale of the Sheriff’s Meadow lots is complete, a conservation restriction which ran with the old subdivision will be replaced with what is called an enhanced conservation restriction.
The enhanced conservation restriction has been signed by the state Secretary of Environmental Affairs, by the Edgartown selectmen and the Edgartown conservation commission. By prior arrangement, the restriction is being held in escrow until the Sheriff’s Meadow sale is complete, Mr. Larkin said.
The Martha’s Vineyard Commission approval of the golf club project was accompanied by some 30 conditions, including a strict provision for a completely organic turf management plan. When the Edgartown zoning board of appeals approved the golf club project early this year, more conditions were added to the list. Language in the enhanced conservation restriction strengthend the conditions even more.
The property includes a rare frost bottom, and a number of conditions require environmental protection for the frost bottom.
Mr. Larkin said this week that construction is under way on some parts of the golf club. Plans call for opening the club by late next summer, depending on how well the fall growing season turns out this year, he said.
One issue which remains unresolved centers on the 16th hole, which is located adjacent to the frost bottom. Original plans called for creating a “flyover” hole with a golf shot across the frost bottom. State environmental officials reacted negatively to this part of the plan, citing the potential for disturbance of a northern harrier nesting site in the frost bottom. In a letter to the town and the golf club developers, state environmental officials said they would consider this part of the golf club plan a legal “take” of the northern harrier nesting site.
At one point Mr. Larkin had proposed a plan to place a conservation restriction on 100 acres of land owned by the Edgartown Water Department, across the road from the frost bottom. The plan called for designating the area northern harrier habitat as a way to mitigate the legal take of the habitat in the frost bottom. The plan was wrapped up in a much more complicated plan for replacing the old conservation restriction on the golf club property with an enhanced restriction.
The plan to designate water department land as northern harrier habitat failed when water department officials objected, citing possible legal impediments to future water department activities.
Mr. Larkin said this week that he is still working on a mitigation plan for the 16th hole.
“Mitigation has not been determined, and until it is determined, we will not be able to hit balls over the frost bottom,” he said.
Mr. Larkin said he and his wife plan to move to the Vineyard year-round once the golf club is built.
“Yes, it’s been arduous. Yes, it’s been complicated. But at the end of the day, my wife and I want to come to the Island to live because we think it’s a wonderful place,” Mr. Larkin said.
