The Martha’s Vineyard Commission last week approved the Cat Hollow condominium development in Vineyard Haven, where the nonprofit Island Housing Trust plans to build three duplexes with income restrictions on four of the six units.

As approved, Cat Hollow’s two lowest-income units will be deed-restricted for sale to year-round Islanders earning up to 80 per cent of the Dukes County median income, qualifying the units for inclusion in the town’s affordable housing inventory. Two other units would be restricted to Vineyarders earning up to 140 per cent of the county median and the last two would be priced at market rate. 

Thursday’s 10-1-1 vote, with Bernadette Cormie in the minority and Ernie Thomas abstaining, was decisive but far from whole-hearted, as several other commissioners expressed reluctance while casting their votes.

“I will vote yes, but I believe … it’s the very low income, the 65 per cent[annual median income] that we need,” commissioner Michael Kim said.

Ms. Cormie, a commissioner from Vineyard Haven, said she wished she could be in favor, but wanted to see a different income mix for the units, a sentiment shared by commissioners Kate Putnam and Ben Robinson.

“My conscience says no,” Ms. Cormie said. “And next time I really want to say yes, with a better project and more affordable housing that actually … fits the lower income, if it’s possible.”

Mr. Thomas did not comment on his abstention.

Hearing officer Doug Sederholm voted with the majority of commissioners who said the Island Housing Trust project is both essential and appropriate for its location.

“I must observe that they can only build what they have money for,” Mr. Sederholm added.

All of the condos would be sold by lottery to qualifying Island residents, according to Island Housing Trust project manager John Stanwood.

Located on Lobster Alley near Lagoon Pond, the 2.7 acre property, which Island Housing Trust purchased in 2022, also has an existing three-bedroom residence leased to the Vineyard Transportation Authority, which uses it for staff housing.

Any future changes to the house would require approval from the commission as a modification of the Cat Hollow approval, although Mr. Sederholm said that might not necessarily require a full public hearing process, depending on the proposal.

In public testimony during the commission’s hearing on Cat Hollow earlier this year, as well as in letters and e-mails to the MVC, neighbors and other Tisbury residents argued the development would adversely affect the area’s traffic, fire risk and natural environment.

Opponents also charged Island Housing Trust with catering to the higher end of the affordable housing market, rather than providing badly-needed dwelling space for Vineyarders with fewer resources.

The majority of commissioners, however, concluded that the project’s benefits outweigh its detriments.

Conditions of the approval include an agreement that the development’s homeowners association will expressly prohibit fire pits, which in Massachusetts are illegal to use for any purpose other than cooking.

Also Thursday, commissioners unanimously approved Millers Professionals’ expansion plan at the Martha’s Vineyard Airport business park and continued their public hearing on the proposed Edgartown Gardens subdivision off of Upper Main street.

Developer William Cumming is proposing to build a three-story, 60-unit condominium development for ages 55 and older on four acres of land that has been used for decades by Donaroma’s landscaping and plant nursery business, much of which is now operating from Oak Bluffs.

A traffic study, commissioned by Mr. Cumming, indicates that additional vehicle trips caused by the Edgartown Gardens development would be canceled out by the absence of commercial traffic no longer generated by Donaroma’s.

Traffic consultant Jeffrey Dick said his firm counted local traffic in the off-season of 2023, and then used data from the Cape Cod Commission on vehicles crossing the canal bridges to derive a multiplying factor of 1.26 for summer traffic, which it applied to the Edgartown Gardens study.

“We have extreme difficulty in getting people over to the Island to conduct the traffic counts that we need,” Mr. Dick said.

At Thursday’s hearing, speakers pushed back against the traffic study and its methodology.

“I don’t believe the numbers. I’ve lived in town for 36 years … I drive by that area regularly, and I cannot believe that it’s 1.26,” said Jonathan Blum, owner of Bad Martha’s brew pub adjacent to the project site.

Mr. Blum and others called for a summertime vehicle count to accurately reflect traffic congestion at Upper Main, where the expanded Stop & Shop faces the project site and the increasingly busy Pinehurst Road intersection.

Mr. Sederholm continued the hearing to August 7, promising that all public testimony will be heard.

“I will continue this public hearing for as long as it takes for everyone who wishes to testify to have their chance. I assure you of that,” he said.

The next Martha’s Vineyard Commission meeting is July 17 at 6:30 p.m., when commissioners are expected to take up new plans f or the former Ocean View restaurant property in Oak Bluffs and potentially continue their public hearing on the Katama Meadows subdivision proposal in Edgartown.