Forest for the Trees

Thursday, July 15 2021 - 3:57pm

The perennial friction between those who cherish the Old Martha’s Vineyard and those who want to fix it up has reached a new peak of intensity as the Island experiences another wave of migration and building pressure.

Weighing the cultural, environmental and economic effects of change is surely within the purview of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, which was vested 40 years ago with unique powers to plan and regulate development on this sandy outpost seven miles out to sea.

But by delving into the smallest details of individual projects, the commission is in danger of missing the forest for the trees. Even worse, it is risking the credibility it needs as the only Islandwide planning agency by playing into the hands of those who cry regulatory overreach.

Consider the case of the Harbor View Hotel, which takes center stage next Thursday night when the commission is set to deliberate and vote on an expansion project for the grande dame hotel that has long graced Edgartown harbor.

On the face of it the project appears reasonable: the hotel wants to rebuild what is known as the Bradley cottage into an expanded spa facility as an amenity for hotel guests.

But the cottage spa is set in a far more complicated picture, dating to 2008 when the hotel received approval from the commission for a major expansion and renovation project. The work was never fully completed, partly due to the financial crash, a change in ownership and a fire at the hotel.

In 2018 the commission approved modifications to the 2008 plan, including a major overhaul of the main building. But some changes had already been made without returning to the commission for review. Later a new pool bar was added that riled neighbors.

Hotel owners say the changes are needed as they struggle to keep the business going in a challenging economic climate. But neighbor tensions have kept mounting over other alleged expanding commercial activities at the hotel, such as jet ski rentals and the use of a private home owned by the hotel for weddings. At least one lawsuit has been filed.

On Tuesday this week, after exhaustive discussion, the MVC land use planning subcommittee approved a list of 12 somewhat draconian conditions to recommend for the Bradley cottage project when the full commission meets next week for a vote. Among them would be a provision allowing hotel guests to have not more than two visitors.

Why not just deny the project and invite the hotel to return for a comprehensive, retroactive review of plans for the entire facility.

That’s what the neighbors have been asking for all along.

In the short run it would sting for the hotel, but in the long run could serve to bring everyone to the table rather than putting the MVC in the untenable position of regulating the business itself. Ultimately, the hotel and its neighbors need to reconcile the very real needs and financial pressures facing modern resort hotels with the quiet, residential nature of the historic Starbuck’s Neck neighborhood.

The Island is facing enormous, some might even say existential, threats. The lack of affordable housing is beginning to impede its ability to provide essential services. Its capacity to handle sewage is at a standstill, and excessive nitrogen is causing havoc in its ponds. Each year, new varieties of ticks bring new types of disease.

The Martha’s Vineyard Commission is more vitally needed than perhaps at any time in its long history. With its broad powers and Islandwide reach, it has taken on the issue of climate change as a major focus, but could exercise a more meaningful leadership role in other areas that threaten the Island as well.

With a big potential agenda and limited resources, it is a not a question of whether what the MVC is doing is right, it’s a question of how it spends its political capital.

Comments

I agree with some of what you

COH Edgartown

I agree with some of what you say but I do think your bias toward "the very real needs and financial pressures facing..." the Harbor View Hotel is misplaced. Are you really saying that the hotel cannot make money without being a complete resort, with boat rentals, a spa open to the public? I must put to you that most hotels in Nantucket do not have those amenities, that there are existing services in town just a few blocks away, and that the traffic route to the Harbor View and back out runs through already crowded, narrow, family neighborhood streets. There is a constant stream of traffic in the summer, including huge tour buses whose groups overnight at the hotel. A compromise on the spa might be made if the hotel established satellite parking and transported clientele via golf carts, rather than increasing car traffic, which would impact not just in the Starbuck's Neck neighborhood, but also Fuller, Cottage, and Morse Streets and Peases Point Way N. But so far the hotel has chosen to beg for forgiveness rather than ask for permission. And you are surprised that there is no trust?

Zoning is not mentioned once

Jane Chittick Edgartown

Zoning is not mentioned once in this article: why? Since 1974, we the voters decided on the uses of the town's land. R-5 was recognized for the established historic neighborhoods that gives Edgartown its charm - and, more important, its historic authenticity. Thirteen years later in 1987, Victoria DiStefano and I co-wrote the Historic District By-laws and presented them to the voters at the April Town Meeting. Tthese laws were enthusiastically passed.

However, in these past few years, commercial forces are trying to undo what we the voters decided twice. It's only a matter of time before the town folds.

This article is a perfect example of what's to come: instead of taking the side of preservation and by-laws, the Gazette says we've got to "understand" the financial pressures of the resort hotel. Really? Why? They also don't mention that the Harbor View was ALLOWED to stay exactly where it was in 1974 - it would be exempt from the R-5 zoning constraints AS LONG AS IT DID NOT EXPAND IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM.
We the residents of our Main Street neighborhood surrounding the Hob Knob Inn made our point: grandfathering does not mean siring new offspring. Stay where you are, but that's the end of the line.

This editorial ignores the

Lynn Edgartown

This editorial ignores the fact that the Harbor View Hotel is currently in violation of long-standing permits governing the service of food and beverages on the hotel grounds. The creation of this outdoor restaurant complex, with a 2600 square foot patio, three fire pits and excessive outdoor lighting, was never reviewed by the MVC or any other regulatory body on Martha’s Vineyard. The noise emanating from this new outdoor restaurant has a deleterious impact on this quiet residential neighborhood. In addition to the creeping commercialization of the hotel, this is what has the neighbors “riled up.” And so far no town organization is addressing this fact. I hope the MVC can step up to the plate and require the hotel to comply with the 1990 and 1992 permits, which it should have done in the first place.

Room rates at the Harborview

Bob Edgartown

Room rates at the Harborview are over $1000 a night. This hotel is not struggling to stay afloat financially without a spa. This is about greed and wanting to make more as opposed to being happy with what they have. It is a real social dilemma we all face in being happy with what we got.

Thanks to the Gazette for

Jim Swartz Edgartown

Thanks to the Gazette for highlighting the critical issue of commercial creep on our island. Their call to deny the request by the Harbor View Hotel for a large spa expansion and instead demand an updated master plan is a good place to start.

Indeed, those who live around the Harbor View Hotel have been asking for a “master plan” to avoid the piecemeal review that has occurred since the first, and last, comprehensive review of the Harbor View in 2008. The Harbor View has deviated from this original plan several times, increasing the commercialization each time. Often, these changes have been small enough to fly under the radar when looked at alone, but when taken together a significant change in character and scale has occurred over a relatively short period of time.

These changes – this “creeping commercialization” – matter because the Harbor View Hotel lies within a residential zone under the Edgartown Zoning Bylaws. When the voters of Edgartown decided to implement zoning bylaws, the Harbor View Hotel was allowed to continue its operation as a hotel because, although a nonconforming commercial use within a residential zone, it is a preexisting use. In return for this legacy status, however, the Hotel cannot deviate from or expand that legacy historic use, either in character or scale. In addition, the Hotel is subject to two specific special zoning permits from 1990 and 1992 that very carefully circumscribe commercial activities that are allowed and not allowed.

The Harbor View benefits tremendously from its legacy location, surrounded by historic homes and the Edgartown Lighthouse and beach, which belong to us all. As such, the Hotel must respect the fact that it is located within a residential zone, local authorities must be courageous enough to enforce the zoning bylaws, and the MVC should recognize that the Hotel benefits from the very character of the neighborhood that its creeping commercialization threatens. Yes, many of the neighbors acquired their homes knowing they were located near the Hotel; but for their part, the recent owners of the Hotel acquired their interest in the Hotel knowing it was located in a residential zone.

Approximately 70 year-round and summer residents alike have written to the MVC to express their dismay at the Hotel’s changes over recent years. The Harbor View has built additional rooms without permission. The Harbor View has not yet paid an affordable housing mitigation fee. The Harbor View has built an outdoor bar and restaurant without MVC approval. The Harbor View has used the residential home across the street (which is under the same ownership) as an ancillary to the Hotel. Enough. The Harbor View Hotel needs a master plan that respects its legacy status, and not a plan that continually pushes the envelope of its historic use.

Both Edgartown and the Hotel’s successes stem from the careful and thoughtful growth of generations past. That success is all too easy to destroy – forever – by allowing untethered commercial growth in a residential zone.

Wonderful, thoughtful

Rob Hughes Edgartown

Wonderful, thoughtful editorial. Thank you. You are right to say, "Why not...return for a comprehensive...review.."

Yes; the forest is - has been - obscured. And, unnecessarily.

The MVC's 2010 "Island Plan..." preceded by years of interviews and analysis endeavored to grasp that "Forest" (https://www.mvcommission.org/sites/default/files/docs/islandplanovervie…) and in turn, make the Plan actionable. Available now, for 11 years, the Plan speaks straightforwardly to the Island's mosaic of "Built Environment(s)" and it underscores MVC’s critical work to “…ensure that buildings and neighborhoods are preserved and built to reinforce the Vineyard’s special character”, Bruce MacNelly, architect, West Tisbury is quoted as saying (see page 9 of the Plan).

Ironically, the understandably vocal concerns of neighbors combined now with MVC subcommittee’s responsive “…somewhat draconian conditions…” may obscure MVC's clear – crisply clear - mandate. “THE VINEYARD’S HISTORIC AND COHESIVE BUILT ENVIRONMENT …is an important part of the scenic beauty at the heart of the Island’s character, identity, and visitor-based economy.” (Page 8). So, perhaps obscured too, for the property owner, is that the Special Character place-making to which MVC is dedicated also buoys commercial successes. Something often lost, I suppose, in the fray. What better example could there be of global market interest – read, hotel guests – prepared to appreciate (and pay for) the experience a one-of-a-kind place? Were it not for MVC's creation and perseverance - its "...unique powers...on this sandy outpost..." the extraordinary, world-class asset of the Harbor View Hotel itself - may have years ago, been impaired?

Dear Editor and Readers, this "...perennial friction between those cherish[ing] the Old...and those who want to fix it up..." is dynamic. America's property rights are foundational. An examination of title informs buyers. In this instance, a marvelous property came not only with the covenants of a legacy DRI (and MVC's continuing attendant purview). Here, the buyer was and is also assured that MVC’s exertions for Built Environment preservation, will continue. How good can it get?