SMF versus QBA

The Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation and the Quansoo Beach Association ought to be able to work out their differences without resorting to the courts, but sadly, in fact embarrassingly, that is not the case. On the surface the dispute which landed in the superior court early this month is about the location of a gate on the Quansoo Road, the long, narrow, sandy — and in summer famously dusty — track that leads to both Quansoo Beach and a one-hundred-and-forty-five-acre Sheriff’s Meadow property that was a generous gift from the late Florence B. (Flipper) Harris.

By longstanding practice, the gate has historically been locked in the summer months, open only to the hundred or so people who hold keys to the private beach. For the remainder of the year the gate is open and public access is allowed, including during the fall bass derby.

The dispute between Sheriff’s Meadow and the beach association has cropped up over the course of the past two years following the sale of six acres from Sheriff’s Meadow to the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank. The lot was also a gift to Sheriff’s Meadow from Mrs. Harris, who intended that it be sold for the purpose of establishing an endowment fund to be used for the perpetual upkeep of the Quansoo property.

Clearly Mrs. Harris, who died five years ago and was the sister of the late Polly Hill, left no stone unturned in her boundless generosity and thoughtful attention to detail; along the way she also gave property to the Quansoo Beach Association for use as a parking lot.

What she could not know, but no doubt would approve of, was that Sheriff’s Meadow would decide to sell the six-acre lot to the land bank, a sister land trust created by an act of the state legislature and also dedicated to the purpose of conservation.

And this is where the true subtext is written in the Sheriff’s Meadow-Quansoo Beach Association dispute, which is less about the location of a gate and more about the undercurrent of paranoia about public access on a land bank property. The story has been written so many times over the years that its pages are dog-eared and we know every line of it: the land bank comes in to buy a property and neighbors become up in arms, worrying that their road and neighborhood will suddenly become overrun with extra people and traffic, all headed for the beautiful new land bank property. This was the reaction among neighbors on North Neck on Chappaquiddick, and at Sepiessa in West Tisbury, to name just two.

And the story without exception has the same ending: all the fears prove to be unjustified, and the land bank property remains much as it was: a quiet, beautiful place, used responsibly and respectfully by remarkably few people.

The land bank is not a party to the lawsuit between Sheriff’s Meadow and the Quansoo Beach Association, but it is without question the elephant in the room.

The lawsuit itself is a waste of precious time and resources on both sides and should be settled as quickly as possible, out of court.