Camping Area Gains Support

Environmental Bond Bill Carries $3 Million Earmark Toward Purchase
of Old Webb's Site in Southern Woodlands

By JULIA WELLS
Gazette Senior Writer

A $700 million state environmental bond bill is now set for a vote
in the state legislature, and includes a $3 million earmark toward the
purchase of the former Webb's Camping Area in Oak Bluffs.

Cape and Islands Rep. Eric T. Turkington said yesterday the earmark
spells possible good news for the town of Oak Bluffs - but also
said it should not be construed as an endorsement of the recent
agreement signed by Oak Bluffs selectmen in support of a plan for a
luxury golf and housing development in the town's southern
woodlands.

"Nobody is endorsing plans here," said Mr. Turkington
yesterday. "We've been approached about what we can do to
help protect some of the southern woodlands, but it's not the
state's call whether it's a golf course next door or
what's next door.

"What they are interested in is this particular campground
site," he said.

The former family campground includes about 80 acres off Barnes
Road. The property is now part of a much larger parcel of about 270
acres owned by Connecticut developer Corey Kupersmith. All of the land
is located in the southern woodlands.

The environmental bond bill was reported out of joint conference
committee yesterday and is now set for a vote in the waning days of the
legislative session. The legislature adjourns its formal session for the
year on July 31.

The bill is expected to come before the House for a vote on Monday.
It began as a $750 million bill filed by acting Gov. Jane Swift last
year; the state Senate later approved a $950 million version of the
bill, and the House a $600 million version.

"This bond bill is the most comprehensive and largest bond
bill passed for the environment in recent memory," said Jim Hunt,
assistant secretary to Robert Durand, secretary of the state Executive
Office of Environmental Affairs.

Environmental bond bills are typically approved every five years. In
1996 the state approved a $499 million such bill, but Mr. Hunt said
since then the legislature has worked to clean up many of what he termed
dormant accounts, which makes the current bill more meaningful.
"This bill is more real in that sense," he said.

Mr. Turkington said it is important to remember that the bond bill
only authorizes spending, and many of the projects listed in the bill
will not in fact receive any funding.

"It's an authorization piece," he said. "It
isn't like ‘here's the money' - it sets
aside money that can be used for certain capital purchases."

The state has capped all bonding at $1.2 billion a year, and any
spending in the environmental bond bill must come under the cap.

"Any purchases made over the next two years have to fit within
the total expenditure cap - all the highway, education, courthouse
- everything that is capital spending. It's not
appropriated, it's borrowed money. We are authorizing money to be
spent, but the actual spending will probably be more like $30 or $40
million a year," Mr. Turkington said.

Mr. Hunt would not discuss the earmark for the former Webb's
Camping Area. "I would not want to comment about individual
earmarks until the bill is passed. We will have to do an individual
analysis on each project," he said from his office in Boston
yesterday."

He did speak about the bill in general, calling it a key component
of the state open-space plan.

"This bill is critically needed for projects across the
commonwealth, and land acquisition is a primary example of the great
work we can do with these funds, whether it is on Martha's
Vineyard, Cape Cod or elsewhere in Massachusetts," Mr. Hunt said.

Mr. Hunt said Mr. Turkington, who is a member of the Committee on
Natural Resources, was a key member of the delegation that worked on the
bond bill.

"The Cape delegation, and in particular Mr. Turkington, have
been helpful in moving this bill," he said.

Mr. Hunt said the state has made long strides in the last five years
in the race to protect more open space across the commonwealth. Between
1990 and 1998, he said, 100,000 acres of open space were protected by
EOEA. Since 1998 the state has protected 140,000 acres of open space at
a lower cost than the previous 100,000 acres, he said.

Land protection tools like agricultural preservation restrictions
and partnerships with land trusts and private owners all helped
contribute to the lower costs, Mr. Hunt said.

"Secretary Durand is a stalwart, and I think we've made
a lot of progress," he added.

In other legislative news yesterday, Mr. Turkington said a date has
now been set for a public hearing on a bill to allow the town of Oak
Bluffs to withdraw from the Martha's Vineyard Commission.

The hearing will be held in Oak Bluffs on Sept. 12, but the location
has not yet been determined, Mr. Turkington said. The hearing is
tentatively set for noon.

The bill was filed after Oak Bluffs voters agreed to take the first
step toward withdrawing from the commission at a special town meeting in
March. Permission is needed from the state legislature because the MVC
was created by an act of the legislature.

The vote by the town came amid widespread anger and confusion after
the commission rejected Mr. Kupersmith's golf course development
plan for the southern woodlands for the second time. The developer had
threatened to build a massive Chapter 40B affordable housing project if
the golf course project was not approved.

The political climate changed later when the MVC won a landmark
court decision granting the regional planning agency full power of
review over 40B housing projects.

Mr. Turkington said yesterday that he has received a fair amount of
mail about the bill - all of it against withdrawal from the
commission. But he said he will support the vote of the town and
shepherd the bill through the legislature, even though he may not agree
with it.

"The town meeting voted and therefore we are obliged to file
the bill, although if I were a town meeting member I don't think I
would have voted for this, especially in view of the recent court
decision which appears to leave the commission as the only thing
standing between Oak Bluffs and 366 houses on that land," Mr.
Turkington said.

If the bill is approved by the state legislature, a second vote by
the town would be required.

"Obviously this is the town's choice, not mine, but in
general I think the commission has proven itself a valuable
asset," Mr. Turkington said. "There aren't any
commission-free zones on the Island and I don't think a town would
want to be a commission-free zone. But that's their choice."