Judge Says Planning Board Overstepped in Turf Decision

Ethan Genter Tuesday, September 5 2023 - 9:24pm

In a 13-page ruling Tuesday, judge Kevin Smith ruled the Oak Bluffs planning board went beyond its authority when it denied the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School’s application for an artificial turf field on the basis of ground water protection.

A state Land Court judge ruled Tuesday that the Oak Bluffs planning board overstepped its authority when it denied the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School’s application for an artificial turf field on the basis of ground water protection.

In a 13-page ruling, Judge Kevin Smith allowed the school’s request for a summary judgment, ordering the planning board and the school to collaborate on a plan to move forward within the next 30 days. The long-awaited decision lays out the limitations of the planning board’s power, a major question that has been outstanding since the board denied the project in 2022.

The planning board denied the school’s application after several contentious hearings, saying materials from the synthetic field could hurt the area’s aquifer. The school claimed it was immune from the regulations because of the Dover Amendment, a state law that bars zoning regulations from stopping the use of land or buildings for educational and religious purposes.

There are some exceptions to the Dover Amendment, but in his decision, Judge Smith said the town can only impose dimensional restrictions.

“The board acted beyond its authority when it imposed water protection regulations of the [Water Resources Protection Overlay District] on the artificial turf field project,” he wrote. “I recognize that the protection of groundwater is of critical importance to any municipality, particularly when that municipality is on an island in the Atlantic Ocean. But I am constrained by the language of the Dover Amendment and the cases that have construed it.”

The school and the planning board are required to tell the court whether there are any other issues that need to be tried and whether further discovery is needed. After the joint report is filed, the court will hold a further conference on the matter.

The judge’s decision comes almost two months after he heard the school and planning board argue their cases on whether the case should go to a full trial. Much of Tuesday’s ruling dealt with the definition of “open space.”

Oak Bluffs’ denial hinged on water protection regulations falling under the open space exemption allowed in the Dover Amendment.

Aside from open space, which is left undefined in the state zoning act, the exemptions under the Dover Amendment all have to do with dimensional requirements, leading the judge to infer that open space was another dimensional limitation.

“I am not persuaded that the inclusion of the term ‘open space’ in the Dover Amendment was intended to be broadly construed to open the door for an educational use to be regulated, and even stopped, by water protection regulations, no matter how important the protection of water resources may be,” Judge Smith wrote.

The regional high school committee is scheduled to meet Monday to talk about the appeal and the potential of re-hiring attorney Brian Winner. Mr. Winner had been handling the case for the school.

Schools superintendent Richard (Richie) Smith said there is still much work to do on overhauling the school’s fields.

“This has been a very long, ongoing process,” he said. “We’d like to get a full understanding of a judge’s decision before we offer a full opinion.”

Paying for Mr. Winner’s services will also likely be discussed at the meeting. The school committee previously vowed to not use any of this year’s budget on the appeal, though it had taken some private donations to cover the attorney’s costs.

Ewell Hopkins, the chair of the Oak Bluffs planning board, said the decision lays out authority of the planning board, but it doesn’t give the school the go-ahead to start building a field.

“He has not said ‘Go forth and prosper,’” Mr. Hopkins said. “He has defined the authority under zoning bylaws.”

Mr. Hopkins said he saw the decision late Tuesday afternoon, but had not been able to discuss it with the rest of the planning board. A meeting between school and Oak Bluffs officials has not yet been scheduled.

Comments

Not surprising at all. You

James Oak Bluffs

Not surprising at all. You can’t stop this project. Contrary to what the anti plastic zealots think, this project is more environmentally sensitive and actually protects the ground water and health of our ponds.

https://www.oakbluffsma.gov

Always confused Tisbury

https://www.oakbluffsma.gov/DocumentCenter/View/7437/PLANNING-BOARD-DEC… Isn’t this document an approval since the judge just said the planning board was out of bounds on the denial of the special permit. What is the public missing from the planning board? Shouldn’t the building department get on with issuing a permit?

I commend both the Planning

New year, new field

I commend both the Planning Board and the School Committee. We crucify public officials in this community. It’s no wonder nobody wants these positions. With that said, there are elected officials that simply don’t belong in office as they are completely unqualified and are only elected as the best bad choice. As an Oak Bluffs resident, I am so grateful for the passion Kris Obrien has exhibited year after year for our community and our children. She is a person of integrity and tireless in her advocacy. Ewell Hopkins is committed to our community and his heart is in the right place. Let’s avoid shenanigans by the Board of Health and other time wasting road blocks. This issue has been an exercise in ego and it’s time to put down the torches and build the field.

Unfortunate news for our

Danny East Chop

Unfortunate news for our grandkids. They are going to need the fresh water more than us.

Great, waste a lot of money

Jim Edgartown

Great, waste a lot of money that could be used for the kids.. build the field and let’s all move on… Synthetic is the best option anyways. No watering, less maintenance and no more fertilizer that’s a win win IMO

The other great advantages

Mr. B. Chilmark

The other great advantages are that you can't ruin it simply by using it on a rainy day and that it can be lined for multi-sport use.

I recently watched a turf

Bob Chappy

I recently watched a turf field installed, the first thing they do is remove all of the grass from the field, then they install drainage, then a layer of sand. This next part is where it gets bad, they cover the entire field with a plastic honey comb material that's about 2" thick, next they cover the entire field with cement, then cover it with rolls of turf, which they glue and melt together, to form a seam. The whole process seemed terrible, and bad for the environment. I ask again, What is wrong with just having a grass field?

How many times are you going

David Edgartown

How many times are you going to ask the same question? Accept defeat graciously and move on. Your side lost.

All due respect sir, but the

anonymous

All due respect sir, but the reason for not wanting a grass field is due to the lack of maintenance done for those grass fields. Countless times and times again kids have hurt themselves from the literal holes in the grass. Other teams have refused to come to the vineyard and play in fear of their kids getting hurt. If there had been maintenance done to the grass fields over time, there would be no discussion for turf. Unfortunately there was a lack of care for students and their safety when playing sports.

By the same token, synthetic

tom Boston

By the same token, synthetic turf has been linked to a significant increase in injuries, especially torn ACLs. It's telling most NFL players want grass fields.

I am curious as to where this

William OB

I am curious as to where this was. In my career I’ve been a part of about 7 synthetic surface installations. First, all 7 installations were entirely different. These fields are designed and built to to specifications for the end user. Since end users are not all the same, it is naive to think that since you saw one field being installed that the MV high school field would be identical. Second, I’d be shocked if the field you saw had concrete underneath it with nothing between the turf and concrete. This was common place 30-40 years ago. Not now.

I'm tired of the crowd that

TisKid MV

I'm tired of the crowd that puts the environment over the people and require more and more ridiculous "solutions" that don't make sense. At this point (and in this case) even if I really do think the environmentalists are right I don't side with them any more, because I'm afraid they'll just use that as an excuse for their next anti people campaign. I'm also concerned the pro environment crowd is rapidly becoming the anti science crowd. There's no point to requiring the school to pay for studies if you won't follow the conclusions because you're scared.

I grew up in So Boston and we

Charlie Callahan So Boston/Edgartown

I grew up in So Boston and we had some great athletes come out of there and there were no rubber fields. Some of our fields didn't even have grass. I had friends who went on to play for the sox,patriots the olympics etc etc,I was not one of them,and they did perfectly fine on dirt fields. This turf thing is a mega money maker for some people and bragging rights for the snobs who want to say little Egbert and Muffie are playing on a $12,000,000 field.

Organic is always better. If

Ken Edg.

Organic is always better. If God wanted plastic fields he would have created them. Sorry the town lost.

if the people who are

jim CHILMARK

if the people who are so adamant about having this fields and so certain of their long-term, nonpolluting quality, they should be willing to take out an insurance policy, or escrow enough money for 20 years sufficient enough to take care of the future problems that may or may not likely arrives.

Our sole source aquifer is under a lot of pressure, from development,growth and including from rising ocean levels. I can’t believe we will take a chance on some thing to make us more competitive with other schools at the risk of potentially contaminating something we will not be able to clean up. Who is going to be responsible when it’s time to fix the problem? That’s what I want to know? There’s so many reasons this is a bad idea of epic proportions. I may not be alive to see the problem but someone’s going to have to deal with it.

The regional high school and the Oak Bluffs planning board are supposed to filed a joint report to the state Land Court within the next 30 days.