Plan for Auction in Oak Bluffs Stirs Tempest: Is It Park Land?

By CHRIS BURRELL

When selectmen in Oak Bluffs first heard about the surplus land
their financial team had seized for nonpayment of taxes, they saw dollar
signs and quickly planned an auction as a sure-fire way to bolster town
coffers with extra cash.

But now, less than two weeks before the scheduled auction of 11
parcels, selectmen find themselves at the center of a controversy over
whether three of those lots are actually town parks and whether revenue
for the town should trump the importance of open land.

On Tuesday afternoon, under fire from a unified planning board and
the unexpected turnout of more than 40 residents at a meeting in town
hall, selectmen backed off their plan to sell the three parcels in
question at the June 14 auction.

"The town of Oak Bluffs is known for its parks,"
planning board chairman John Bradford wrote in a strongly worded letter
to selectmen dated May 29. "No other town on this Island can boast
the number of parks as Oak Bluffs. To lose any of these jewels of our
town is unthinkable."

But selectmen chairman Richard Combra said he has no doubts that the
land is not town park land.

"I am totally convinced that these are not and have never been
town parks," Mr. Combra said at Tuesday's joint meeting of
the selectmen, planning board and parks commission. "That's
the information from our attorneys."

The planning board has challenged that position, arguing that three
lots totaling roughly 3 1/2 acres along Fitchburg avenue near the Lagoon
are very likely town parks.

"We have received information supporting the fact that these
parcels may in fact be town parks. The three parcels are Winne Park
… and Linden Parks," Mr. Bradford wrote in his letter.

Mr. Bradford also pointed out that assessors maps from 1873 to 1985
show the parcels as parks.

It's a bit of a mystery then how the land ever fell into
private hands. Town assessor Diane Wilson and parks commissioner Allan
(Buddy) deBettencourt both told the Gazette that a Duxbury man named
William J. Devine managed to obtain a deed to the parcels in 1983.

Mr. deBettencourt said Mr. Devine used fictitious names of sellers
in his transaction to make it appear that he was purchasing interest in
the land from descendants of the Wing family, which originally developed
Lagoon Heights in the 1870s. But when Mr. Devine failed to pay taxes on
the land, the town took it back.

But while Oak Bluffs now owns the land, town officials are clearly
poised for a fight over the status: Should it be sold to raise cash or
saved for conservation?

"These three parcels were never designated as town
parks," Mr. Combra told the Gazette in a telephone interview
Monday. "The town has a need for revenue, and this is a revenue
source."

Selectman Todd Rebello agreed, telling the Gazette that taxpayers
need to weigh the benefits of open space against the fiscal pressures on
the town that set the stage for higher taxes each year.

"If it's not park land, then I'm prepared to seek
new revenue," he said. "We've got to decide whether we
want to conserve people out or turn around and generate revenue that
would allow the average Joe to live in Oak Bluffs."

But advocates for open land such as the planning board and Mr.
deBettencourt are clamoring for saving the land and officially
designating the parcels as parks.

"The board recommends that these parcels be put in the care
and custody of the park department and take whatever legal action is
necessary to dedicate them as parks for the town," Mr. Bradford
wrote.

On a 1985 town assessors atlas, the parcels are clearly labeled
Winne Park and Linden Parks. On a 2002 assessors map, the lots are
labeled simply "Town of Oak Bluffs."

In the town's open space report from 1975, both parks are
listed among the 12 undeveloped parks, but the ownership is stated as
"unknown."

"They're never going to get those parcels. They are
definitely parks, and we're going to take this to the
voters," said Mr. deBettencourt, who acknowledged that he owns
land abutting one of the two parcels which have been known as Linden
Park.

Tuesday's joint meeting of three board was intended to be a
venue for airing differences among town officials, but selectmen
unanimously adjourned the meeting within minutes after deciding to
remove the three parcels from the auction block.

A huge crowd showed up at town hall for the 4 p.m. meeting, far more
than could fit in the small conference room, formerly occupied by the
town clerk. Mr. Combra said it wasn't fair to make residents stand
for an entire meeting.

As Mr. Bradford wrote, Oak Bluffs is renowned for the parks that are
part of its planned neighborhoods. There are 11 principal parks and 12
undeveloped parks, totaling just over 41 acres and listed with the parks
department, according to Mr. deBettencourt.

While much of the discussion over the land has focused on the choice
between revenue or conservation, there was little mention of whether any
of the 11 parcels originally slated for auction should have been
considered for affordable housing.

Last month, Mr. Combra and selectman Roger Wey both lobbied for
transferring some of the 11 parcels to the resident homesite committee.

But when the committee reviewed the land parcels available -
all but one of them buildable lots - they showed no interest. The
committee, disbanded back in the 1990s, has been in disarray for years
now and has not awarded an affordable housing lot in more than four
years.

Selectmen reconstituted the committee last year, and chairman Jesse
(Jack) Law said he expects to make at least seven lots available within
the next few months.

But when his committee looked at the list of parcels about to be
auctioned, he said, "We decided at this time the taxpayers needed
the money."