MVC Chairman Blazes Housing Trail

By IAN FEIN

A pending proposal by the chairman of the Martha's Vineyard Commission to carve a one-acre affordable housing lot off her West Tisbury property has drawn criticism from one of the Island's most vocal affordable housing advocates who lives next door.

Planning board members, who are now considering the proposal, in turn criticized the housing advocate last month for what they suggested was a hypocritical opposition.

A public hearing on the homesite is set for 7:30 p.m. Monday at the West Tisbury town hall.

Shadbush Lane residents Linda and Donald Sibley are seeking to divide their 4.5-acre property to create a one-acre homesite lot for Simon Bollin, 28, who has worked for Mrs. Sibley in her Vineyard Electronics business on State Road in Vineyard Haven for the last 14 years.

Mrs. Sibley, who also serves as chairman of the Martha's Vineyard Commission, and her husband are the first private landowners in either Chilmark or West Tisbury to offer a piece of their land as affordable housing through the homesite lot program adopted by both towns in recent years. Deed-restricted homesite lots can be as small as one acre and still fall within three-acre zoning for the purpose of affordable housing for qualified recipients. A few other homesite lots have been created, but those came primarily as concessions through larger subdivisions. Created through zoning bylaw amendments, the homesite lot provisions in Chilmark and West Tisbury are distinct from the youth lot and resident homesite programs that have been in place in Vineyard towns for a number of years.

"This is the first of its kind," West Tisbury planning board chairman Murray Frank said of the Sibley proposal this week. "This is the first time somebody has stepped up on their own, and I think it's terrific that the Sibleys are willing to do it. I hope it's viewed as a model and that others will follow."

Mrs. Sibley said she and her husband decided to offer Mr. Bollin a lot after watching him struggle unsuccessfully for two years to find a landowner willing to carve off an acre for him in Chilmark, where he has long been on the volunteer fire department and was one of the first people to qualify for the housing program.

"I watched his passionate efforts to become a homeowner on Martha's Vineyard, and it seemed to me wrong that he couldn't build a home here where he belonged," Mrs. Sibley said, noting that Mr. Bollin's family heritage on the Vineyard extends back multiple generations.

Mrs. Sibley admitted that it was a difficult decision - and that she would not have offered her land to a stranger - but she added that private owners with much larger tracts of land could likely carve off an acre for affordable housing with a very minor impact to the rest of the parcel.

"I would hope that someone with a smaller parcel might be willing to do this for someone they know," Mrs. Sibley said. "But I would also hope that someone with a larger parcel might be willing to do it for the greater good."

Mrs. Sibley also said she understood her neighbor's general resistance to the homesite lot, particularly because they live in the Buttonwood Farm area off State Road, where homeowners benefit from four-plus acre lots and would have a natural reluctance to greater density.

"People have been here a long time - there's been a lot of stability in here," said Mrs. Sibley, who with her husband has lived in the same home for roughly 30 years. "I understand the sense of loss. Change is not easy to take."

Island Housing Trust chairman Juleann VanBelle - whose property abuts the Sibleys' - approached the planning board during an informal discussion about the homesite proposal in June to express her concerns.

According to board minutes of the meeting, she said it would set a bad precedent for the neighborhood - where at least nine other homesite lots could be created - and that the new lot would pose a greater burden to her than to the Sibleys. Ms. VanBelle said that the owner of the new lot would be her neighbor, in her backyard, and that the new home would be a direct impact on her in every single way.

Ms. VanBelle told the planning board that the new house would be directly in her line of sight from her own home, and that the additional driveway through the Sibley parcel would run along her property line. She suggested that a better location for the homesite lot would be on the other side of the Sibley property.

After a subsequent site visit board members said last month that they felt the proposed site was an appropriate location.

At the end of their meeting in July, before reaching a consensus that the Sibley proposal was viable and adequate and ready to go to a public hearing, board members took turns commenting on Ms. VanBelle's opposition.

According to the minutes, board member Eileen Maley said it distressed her that such a vocal advocate for affordable housing would voice concerns over having a homesite lot as a neighbor. Mark Yale said he was disturbed by Ms. VanBelle's comment that it would devalue her property and added that he found it duplicitous that she asked Island residents to spend additional money funding affordable housing - by lobbying for the passage of the Community Preservation Act this spring - while she felt should be exempt from the consequences of such housing.

Mr. Frank concluded the conversation by saying the Sibley homesite lot was in the town's best interest, and that Ms. VanBelle was making classic NIMBY - not in my backyard - arguments.

Ms. VanBelle did not return a call for comment this week. But as a panelist at an affordable housing forum sponsored by the Martha's Vineyard Commission in June, she said she thought the word NIMBY was polarizing and that people should stop using the acronym altogether.

"When a project comes forward for a neighborhood, someone might not be against the project entirely," Ms. VanBelle told the audience. "But maybe it's changing what they consider their home and neighborhood without a lot of say."