Affordable Housing Plan Wins Approval

Bridge Project for Outskirts of Tisbury Wins Approval with Strong Vote from Island Commission

By MANDY LOCKE

After four months of review, the Martha's Vineyard Commission approved Bridge Housing Corporation's plan Thursday night to create 30 below-market homes on eight acres of rolling woodlands in the rural outskirts of Tisbury.

But the sweeping approval, with 10 members voting in favor and a single abstention, came with plenty of misgivings - regret that the Island's desperate need for affordable housing has forced a development of this magnitude onto an unspoiled tract of land.

"I had to get back to what this is all about," said commissioner Tristan Israel of Tisbury. "A group of people got together to do something about [the affordable housing problem]. They've done the best they can do. I'm going to vote for this because we need affordable housing. Could this have been better? Of course. I'm ambivalent, but yes."

The land use planning agency has worked since January to help soften the project's impact on the pastoral community along State Road. Even in the final moments of their deliberations, commission members attempted to reconfigure the site plan.

"It's taken so long because we keep struggling to find an answer. But there isn't an answer. I hope Bridge will hear what we've been saying with the tweaking," said commissioner Katherine Newman.

This young nonprofit group, comprising volunteers from several Island churches, won permission Thursday night to construct 15 modular duplexes on a narrow strip of land owned by the James and Sonya Norton family. All of the homes will be sold to families earning less than 140 per cent of the county median income, $85,500 for a family of four. At least eight of the homes will be reserved for households earning less than 80 per cent of median income, or $48,900. Nearly 16 acres of conservation land - a joint purchase with the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank - will abut the cluster development.

"We're happy [with the decision], but we know it's a single step in a much longer process," said Brad Austin, president of the Bridge's board of directors.

The Bridge project moved haltingly through the hearing process, as commissioners and the applicant tried to overcome planning concerns without unduly straining the nonprofit group's resources. The project drew a barrage of protests from neighborhood residents who feared the Bridge Common would destroy the rural character of their community, add congestion a busy roadway and threaten their water quality.

"We were disappointed with how long it took but impressed with how diligent the commissioners were," Mr. Austin said Friday.

Septic and water complications - involving nitrogen loading in a sensitive zone - threatened to undermine the project. Bridge officials finally satisfied state Department of Environmental Protection requirements and commission concerns by extending town water to the property, installing monitoring wells, purchasing title for six acres of the conservation land and installing leaching fields along the western boundary of the property to dilute nitrogen loading. The commission also ordered Thursday night that if abutters' wells exceed drinking water standards as a result of the development, Bridge must pay to extend water lines to their properties or install a denitrifying system serving the project. In addition, Bridge must foot the bill for any neighbors wishing to have wells tested before the development is completed.

Throughout the past several months, some commissioners feared that the sponsors of this housing project might not be able to bear the cost of these mitigating measures. But Mr. Austin said the project will survive the adjustments by shifting some of the units to the higher median income category. The group initially resisted catering to the upper end of the below-market buyers. But incorporating higher income categories became necessary to cover $1.32 million in total land costs, the expense of hooking in with town water and the elimination of one duplex from the initial application. Mr. Austin said they hope fund-raising efforts will enable the group to move more of the units back into the lower-income categories.

"The only thing that could make us fail now is if we are left with an appeal [of the project] that we can't win. The buyer can't stay on forever," said Mr. Austin, noting that the Norton family has turned down higher offers from private developers in order to help the affordable housing cause.

The Tisbury zoning board of appeals must now review the project, the final step in a comprehensive permit under Chapter 40B - a state law that allows developers to skirt certain zoning requirements if 25 per cent of the units are affordable. A rejection from the local board would also cause Bridge to back away from the project, Mr. Austin said.

In the final hour of deliberations Thursday night, commission members turned from their scrutiny of the project's flaws and embraced the development's impact on the Island's affordable housing problem.

"Affordable housing is extremely difficult to accomplish in the private sector. This project alone isn't enough to get us anywhere near where we need to go, and it's the largest project we've seen so far," said commissioner John Best.

Several of the commissioners, in their concluding comments, expressed regret that a more palatable solution to the affordable housing problem has not been found - a solution that doesn't involve such dense development of an open piece of land.

"I think we need to find ways to integrate affordable housing instead of having such a drastic impact on a neighborhood. But we're forced, it is, by absurd land prices. We haven't worked hard enough yet on other ways [to create affordable housing]," said commissioner Linda Sibley.

"We need a lot of different models to meet the affordable housing crisis. But I think there are problems with the land. I wish we could have all sat down to come up with a better plan. I didn't get all the answers I wanted," said commissioner Megan Ottens-Sargent.

In the end, only one commissioner did not throw his support behind the project. Andrew Woodruff, the lone abstention amid 10 approval votes, said he was unable to accept the project's density.

"I've been pretty torn up about this. I applaud their efforts to do the first of its kind," Mr. Woodruff said. "I sense a little bit of inflexibility with site design improvements. Some reduction in density was the right thing to do. I'll be the voice of minority, though I guess I'm glad the voice of reason prevails."

In less than two years, Bridge Housing has advanced from mere discussions about the affordable housing problem to an action plan that will bring homes to 30 households struggling to gain a foothold in the Island housing market.

"We had the construction and development expertise to not be intimidated. You have to be ready to argue the case. A lot of people who may be proponents of the cause aren't ready to take the next step - the next task of going to the MVC. Altruistic causes don't necessarily have an easy path for success," Mr. Austin said.