The future of 26 wooded acres in West Tisbury is under consideration by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, which on Thursday opened a public hearing on the three Bangs brothers’ application to subdivide their inherited property on Old Coach Road.
Brothers Paul S. Bangs, James D. Bangs and Charles D. Bangs are asking to create six 3.95-acre building lots and one 1.37-acre affordable housing lot, along with a 1.22-acre right of way, on their late father Stuart Bangs’s woodlot that stretches from Old Coach Road to Nip ’n’ Tuck Lane.
Each brother would then have two market-rate lots to keep or sell at his individual discretion, Charles Bangs said.
“We are not, as a family, involved in some massive building project that would take place immediately, homes to be sold on speculation and that sort of thing,” Mr. Bangs said.
“I have two children and … we never know, but ideally I’d love to be able to pass those on to my children [and] I think Paul feels the same way,” he said.
The third brother, James Bangs, intends to sell his lots, Charles Bangs said.
There are some restrictions on how the properties could be used. The proposed building lots are too small to allow for guest houses, the Bangs’ land surveyor Glenn Provost told the commission. In West Tisbury, a guest house has to have at least 4.5 acres.
The size of the affordable building lot complies with town bylaws but not with MVC requirements, commission housing planner Laura Silber said.
“Buildable [affordable] lots must ordinarily not be less than the average-sized building lot on the development,” she said.
The hearing, which will continue Oct. 19, dwelled for some time on the issue of public access to the Bangs land, which the family has tacitly permitted for generations on the woodlot’s access trails.
A letter from the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank, read aloud Thursday by land bank commissioner Peter Wells, urges the MVC to include a public trail easement along the property’s western boundary, to connect with other trails the land bank hopes to create nearby in future years.
Charles Bangs said such an easement could hamper access to lots in the subdivision, and suggested the land bank speak to future owners instead.
“I’m concerned about, you know, restricting or taking control of parts of this lot away from [the] eventual owners,” he said.
The brothers are considering a different easement crossing the property from Old Coach Road, where a trail already exists along the border of the proposed affordable lot, according to the application.
In addition to the letter from the land bank, the MVC has received written correspondence from more than a dozen West Tisbury neighbors, many raising concerns about increased traffic from the subdivision and wear and tear on private roads.
The property has a recorded easement for access through the private Island Farms subdivision nearby, according to the application.
The brothers said they will join each abutting neighborhood’s road association or, if no association exists, make other arrangements to pay for maintenance on roads used to reach the Bangs subdivision.
Fire protection was another issue, with the West Tisbury fire department requiring either a 10,000-gallon or larger underground water tank for the subdivision or residential sprinklers installed in every home built there.
The discussion will resume Oct. 19, when the commission meets at 6:30 p.m.
Among other business Thursday, the MVC approved chimney alterations at the Stone Bank condominium development in Vineyard Haven.
Originally represented as square chimneys, the vents were built as metal pipes, which drew the commission’s ire earlier this year.
The pipes have since been painted black and enclosed in square white boxes, resembling the chimney atop the Steamship Authority terminal across the street.
Commissioners did not discuss the four fireplaces they denied earlier this month for not appearing in the original plans, and developer Reid “Sam” Dunn was not present to speak.
Kate Putnam and Carole Vandal voted against approving the chimneys, with other commissioners in favor.
