Chilmark is now accepting proposals for Tea Lane Farm after town voters agreed, with sweeping support this week, to lease out the historic farm on a long-term basis.
Applications are due by next month; the Tea Lane Farm committee is still finishing a timetable and rubric for the project. The farm committee will review proposals and conduct interviews with applicants and then make recommendations to a joint committee of the selectmen and land bank advisory board, which will make a final decision.
With sweeping support Chilmark voters approved the long-term leasing of the historic Tea Lane Farm house at a special town meeting Monday night.
The vote was 62 to 5.
This was the fourth time selectmen have come before voters with a plan to return the property to a working farm. Selectmen said offering a 75-year lease on the property as-is was the best option so far.
The fate of the historic Tea Lane Farm will come before Chilmark voters for a fourth time at a special town meeting on Monday. Voters are being asked to decide whether the town should enter into a long-term lease with a tenant farmer.
The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at the Chilmark Community Center. Moderator Everett Poole will preside over the special session.
The future of Tea Lane Farm took a different course this week as Chilmark selectmen reviewed preliminary plans to lease the property as a farm as-is instead of spending money to restore it.
Under the new proposal, the town would lease the historic farmhouse for up to 99 years, using a resident homesite model similar to the Middle Line Road affordable housing project. The farmer tenant would be responsible for a long list of improvements that would be spelled out in the lease.
By REMY TUMIN
Chilmark selectmen are now considering a new plan for leasing out the town-owned house at Tea Lane Farm.
On Tuesday town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport outlined three options for the town — sell the property, issue a short-term or a long-term lease.
Selectmen are considering the next steps after voters rejected a third plan to restore and renovate the 18th century farmhouse for $550,000 at a special town meeting last month.
Chilmark selectmen are now rethinking the future of the house at Tea Lane Farm after voters rejected a second plan at a special town meeting on Monday. The plan would have have renovated the 18th century house at a cost of $550,000 to prepare it for leasing to a tenant farmer.
With little discussion voters defeated the article by indefinite postponement.
Former town treasurer Judy Jardin led the move.