Affordable Housing Plan Wins Approval

Bridge Project for Outskirts of Tisbury Wins Approval with Strong
Vote from Island Commission

By MANDY LOCKE

After four months of review, the Martha's Vineyard Commission
approved Bridge Housing Corporation's plan Thursday night to
create 30 below-market homes on eight acres of rolling woodlands in the
rural outskirts of Tisbury.

But the sweeping approval, with 10 members voting in favor and a
single abstention, came with plenty of misgivings - regret that
the Island's desperate need for affordable housing has forced a
development of this magnitude onto an unspoiled tract of land.

"I had to get back to what this is all about," said
commissioner Tristan Israel of Tisbury. "A group of people got
together to do something about [the affordable housing problem].
They've done the best they can do. I'm going to vote for
this because we need affordable housing. Could this have been better? Of
course. I'm ambivalent, but yes."

The land use planning agency has worked since January to help soften
the project's impact on the pastoral community along State Road.
Even in the final moments of their deliberations, commission members
attempted to reconfigure the site plan.

"It's taken so long because we keep struggling to find
an answer. But there isn't an answer. I hope Bridge will hear what
we've been saying with the tweaking," said commissioner
Katherine Newman.

This young nonprofit group, comprising volunteers from several
Island churches, won permission Thursday night to construct 15 modular
duplexes on a narrow strip of land owned by the James and Sonya Norton
family. All of the homes will be sold to families earning less than 140
per cent of the county median income, $85,500 for a family of four. At
least eight of the homes will be reserved for households earning less
than 80 per cent of median income, or $48,900. Nearly 16 acres of
conservation land - a joint purchase with the Martha's
Vineyard Land Bank - will abut the cluster development.

"We're happy [with the decision], but we know it's
a single step in a much longer process," said Brad Austin,
president of the Bridge's board of directors.

The Bridge project moved haltingly through the hearing process, as
commissioners and the applicant tried to overcome planning concerns
without unduly straining the nonprofit group's resources. The
project drew a barrage of protests from neighborhood residents who
feared the Bridge Common would destroy the rural character of their
community, add congestion a busy roadway and threaten their water
quality.

"We were disappointed with how long it took but impressed with
how diligent the commissioners were," Mr. Austin said Friday.

Septic and water complications - involving nitrogen loading in
a sensitive zone - threatened to undermine the project. Bridge
officials finally satisfied state Department of Environmental Protection
requirements and commission concerns by extending town water to the
property, installing monitoring wells, purchasing title for six acres of
the conservation land and installing leaching fields along the western
boundary of the property to dilute nitrogen loading. The commission also
ordered Thursday night that if abutters' wells exceed drinking
water standards as a result of the development, Bridge must pay to
extend water lines to their properties or install a denitrifying system
serving the project. In addition, Bridge must foot the bill for any
neighbors wishing to have wells tested before the development is
completed.

Throughout the past several months, some commissioners feared that
the sponsors of this housing project might not be able to bear the cost
of these mitigating measures. But Mr. Austin said the project will
survive the adjustments by shifting some of the units to the higher
median income category. The group initially resisted catering to the
upper end of the below-market buyers. But incorporating higher income
categories became necessary to cover $1.32 million in total land costs,
the expense of hooking in with town water and the elimination of one
duplex from the initial application. Mr. Austin said they hope
fund-raising efforts will enable the group to move more of the units
back into the lower-income categories.

"The only thing that could make us fail now is if we are left
with an appeal [of the project] that we can't win. The buyer
can't stay on forever," said Mr. Austin, noting that the
Norton family has turned down higher offers from private developers in
order to help the affordable housing cause.

The Tisbury zoning board of appeals must now review the project, the
final step in a comprehensive permit under Chapter 40B - a state
law that allows developers to skirt certain zoning requirements if 25
per cent of the units are affordable. A rejection from the local board
would also cause Bridge to back away from the project, Mr. Austin said.

In the final hour of deliberations Thursday night, commission
members turned from their scrutiny of the project's flaws and
embraced the development's impact on the Island's affordable
housing problem.

"Affordable housing is extremely difficult to accomplish in
the private sector. This project alone isn't enough to get us
anywhere near where we need to go, and it's the largest project
we've seen so far," said commissioner John Best.

Several of the commissioners, in their concluding comments,
expressed regret that a more palatable solution to the affordable
housing problem has not been found - a solution that doesn't
involve such dense development of an open piece of land.

"I think we need to find ways to integrate affordable housing
instead of having such a drastic impact on a neighborhood. But
we're forced, it is, by absurd land prices. We haven't
worked hard enough yet on other ways [to create affordable
housing]," said commissioner Linda Sibley.

"We need a lot of different models to meet the affordable
housing crisis. But I think there are problems with the land. I wish we
could have all sat down to come up with a better plan. I didn't
get all the answers I wanted," said commissioner Megan
Ottens-Sargent.

In the end, only one commissioner did not throw his support behind
the project. Andrew Woodruff, the lone abstention amid 10 approval
votes, said he was unable to accept the project's density.

"I've been pretty torn up about this. I applaud their
efforts to do the first of its kind," Mr. Woodruff said. "I
sense a little bit of inflexibility with site design improvements. Some
reduction in density was the right thing to do. I'll be the voice
of minority, though I guess I'm glad the voice of reason
prevails."

In less than two years, Bridge Housing has advanced from mere
discussions about the affordable housing problem to an action plan that
will bring homes to 30 households struggling to gain a foothold in the
Island housing market.

"We had the construction and development expertise to not be
intimidated. You have to be ready to argue the case. A lot of people who
may be proponents of the cause aren't ready to take the next step
- the next task of going to the MVC. Altruistic causes don't
necessarily have an easy path for success," Mr. Austin said.