On the eve of a public hearing - now set for next week - to review a massive housing project in the southern woodlands section of Oak Bluffs, the developers of the Down Island Golf Club appear to be charting a fresh collision course with the Martha's Vineyard Commission.
Brian Lafferty, a Bolton housing developer who is the point man for Connecticut developer Corey Kupersmith, flatly told a commission subcommittee early this week that he will not comply with staff requests for more information about the project.
"This is going to be a constant source of consternation between us. Our position is you have no right to [require certain technical information in connection with the plan], and that the only standard we have to meet is the same standard that the board of appeals has," Mr. Lafferty said during a meeting of the commission land use planning subcommittee on Monday evening.
"There will be very little additional information forthcoming," he added.
At the same meeting Mr. Lafferty repeatedly called commission member Linda Sibley a bigot and challenged her standing to participate in the public hearing on the housing plan.
The public hearing on the plan begins at 6:30 p.m. on August 14 in the cafeteria of the Martha's Vineyard Regional High School.
Called the Homes at Southern Woodlands, the plan to build 320 houses on 273 acres is under review by the commission as a development of regional impact (DRI). The property is owned by Mr. Kupersmith, who has tried without success to win approval from the commission for a private luxury golf and housing project.
Crafted under Chapter 40B, a state law that allows low and moderate income housing projects to skirt most local zoning rules, the housing project is conceived on a scale unlike anything ever seen on the Vineyard.
The MVC has unique regulatory powers to review Chapter 40B projects. Mr. Kupersmith challenged the commission's power last year and lost in the Massachusetts Land Court. His attorneys are is now trying to overturn the decision.
Meanwhile the Homes At Southern Woodlands is winding its way through the DRI process.
Staff reports circulated at the Monday subcommittee meeting note a long list of problems with the plan, ranging from deficient and inaccurate technical information to information that is simply missing.
The plan calls for a mix of 240 single family homes and 80 apartment units. According to staff reports the project will include 1,040 bedrooms and will use more than 100,000 gallons of water a day. The plan calls for using town water and individual on-site septic systems, except for 80 studio apartments that will use a cluster septic system. Paved roads will cover more than 25 acres of the property.
The entire southern woodlands is a district of critical planning concern (DCPC), a special overlay planning district adopted through a process under the commission's enabling legislation. DCPCs are accompanied by special town zoning rules for environmental protection.
The Homes at Southern Woodlands would require a long list of waivers and special permits under DCPC rules.
Parts of the property lie in the zones of contribution for the Farm Neck and Lagoon Pond municipal wells; zones of contribution are considered nitrogen sensitive areas under the state sanitary code.
MVC water quality planner William Wilcox asked Mr. Lafferty whether he intends to use nitrogen credits, a technique where undeveloped land in one area is used to offset other areas of the property where the nitrogen discharge may exceed limits set by the state and also the DCPC. The limits are intended to protect groundwater.
"It doesn't matter, if we control the whole property," Mr. Lafferty said.
"It matters in terms of my trying to evaluate this project for the Martha's Vineyard Commission," Mr. Wilcox replied.
The preliminary staff review shows that some of the technical reports submitted in connection with the golf course plan have simply been resubmitted for the housing plan, including wildlife and habitat studies.
No landscaping plan and no lighting plan have been submitted.
A preliminary traffic analysis shows that the housing project would generate more than 3,500 daily car trips onto Barnes Road during the peak season.
One staff report questioned whether the developer intended to submit a fiscal impact analysis for the project, much as he had done for the golf course project.
"That question? I had to laugh when I saw that," said Mr. Lafferty. "This project is going to cost the taxpayers of Oak Bluffs $1.8 million to support it every year," he added.
Mr. Lafferty said the network of trails and ancient ways that runs through the property will be history.
"The public has no right of access right now on the old roads and that will never change," the developer said.
There was some question about whether the application is complete enough for a public hearing, but Mr. Lafferty told the commission to go ahead.
"I'm ready," he said.
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