Changing Dukes County avenue to one-way traffic is the result of when town boards selectively ignore zoning regulations and the residents of the neighborhoods suffer the consequences.

What follows is the history of how this problem was created (all public record information).

Dave Richardson bought the lot where Smoke ’n Bones is today on Dec. 3, 1991, for $89,700.

Dave Richardson bought Tony’s Market at 119 Dukes county avenue on March 12, 1992 for $165,000.

Dave bought 122 Dukes County avenue (the white house on the corner of Dukes County and Oakland avenues across the street from Smoke ’n Bones on Dec. 31, 1993 for $80,000.

The restaurant that is now Smoke ’n Bones was built around 1994-1995.

The permit to build a 64-seat restaurant on a 40 x 80-foot lot was contingent upon the applicant providing the required on-site parking for the restaurant on the property across the street at 122 Dukes County avenue.

The restaurant was sold on June 4, 1997 for $380,000, without the property at 122 Dukes County avenue that was its parking.

The house was rented for awhile and then sold on Sept. 13, 2000 for $229,000.

At some point in this process the restaurant property, Smoke ’n Bones, secured a 99-year lease for eight parking spaces of the claimed 13 spaces in the Tony’s Market parking lot. I say claimed because the parking lot is technically too narrow for two rows of perpendicular parking, so apparently there was no drawn and dimensioned parking lot plan required when the town planning board granted this permission.

The current zoning regulations requiring adequate on-site parking have been in effect since 1988 and passed town meeting with 106-1. One has to wonder why Tony’s Market has been exempt from zoning regulations that everyone else must follow.

Why should all the residents of the neighborhoods in a one-mile circle around Tony’s Market suffer radically-increased vehicle and truck traffic, decreased safety for their children, reduced property values and diminished emergency response time for the benefit of one business when the problem was created by the failure of the town planning board and building inspector to enforce zoning regulations that were properly voted for by the townspeople and approved by the state attorney general in 1988?

Based on the zoning regulations voted for in 1988 and in effect today, Tony’s Market should have been required to have a minimum of 26 parking spaces when the initial major expansion took place, with more parking required before the business was expanded further with the addition of the takeout restaurant.

The zoning violations and questions that need to be answered include:

Why was Tony’s allowed to expand to a 4,664-square-foot store with only seven parking spaces?

When did the town give Tony’s permission to add the deli to his store?

Did the town give Tony’s permission for a takeout restaurant, or was Tony’s allowed to develop a takeout restaurant under the guise of being a deli in a store?

Why was Tony’s allowed to sell their parking around the white house at 122 Dukes County avenue?

What will happen if in the future, Smoke ’n Bones becomes a year-round three-meal-a-day restaurant like Linda Jean’s and needs their parking in Tony’s parking lot all day and year-round?

What will happen when the other commercial properties around Tony’s are developed and they also use street parking?

Answer: The traffic chaos caused by Tony’s resumes.

Dukes County avenue is only six tenths of a mile long and is the only direct route connecting the town center to Wing Road, its emergency facility and all points beyond.

Why should the entire town suffer the diminished emergency response time that will result from changing Dukes County avenue, and possibly many other streets to one way?

The folks at Tony’s and some people in the Arts District seem to think that parking regulations, the ones they have been quite successfully attempting to bypass for years, are some extraneous abstract concept. Parking regulations are the single most important zoning regulation for limiting the type and density of commercial development. The voters decided they did not want another Circuit avenue on Dukes County avenue back in 1988 when they voted for these zoning regulations. The parking regulations are reasonable and conservative and if they had been followed we would not have this threat to the surrounding neighborhoods. The people voted for these zoning regulations specifically so the neighbors and neighborhoods around this commercial area would not be overrun by any single business or group of businesses. Avoiding the abuse of these neighborhoods was the point of the 1988 addition of the parking regulations to Oak Bluffs zoning and its written law.

The solution to this problem is for Tony’s to purchase an additional parking area.

The people affected by changing Dukes County avenue — and possibly many other roads — to one-way traffic for the purpose of creating parking for one business, believe this change is a direct violation of the parking regulations voted by a majority as a change to Oak Bluffs zoning in 1988. This change is beyond the discretion of the selectmen and must, by law, be voted on again as a zoning change. Legal challenge to this action is being contemplated.

Make your voice heard and come to the selectmen’s meeting on Nov. 15 when this issue is to be discussed.

Donald Muckerheide
Oak Bluffs