The dirt is still fresh driving down Middle Line Road and along the way your car collects a coating of brown dust. Still, the road is pristine compared to the normal potholed, rollercoaster of rural Vineyard roads. And once you drive through the beguiling tunnel of Chilmark trees, a new neighborhood appears, its homes tucked onto hilltops.

David Handlin Frank Lorusso
David Handlin and Frank LoRusso check progress. — Mark Alan Lovewell

A school teacher, a town employee, a medic, a nurse’s aid and children — lots of children — are about to move into this brand new affordable home development off Tabor House Road. The first town-owned affordable housing project, Middle Line Road is now nearing completion. The last doorknobs are being polished, scratches to doors are being removed and final layers of paint are being applied. And soon six families will move into the new apartment duplexes.

Development dirt driveway construction house
Middle Line Development Project in Chilmark is Nearing Completion. — Mark Alan Lovewell

Members of the Chilmark housing committee met at the site on Wednesday to begin making final punch lists with project managers and contractors. Selectman Warren Doty is eager for the tenants to move into their new homes; move-in day is set for Nov. 1.

“I think we got really good people to live here and I’m pleased with how many children there will be,” he said, standing on the porch of one of the apartments. At last count there will be 13 children in the Middle Line Road neighborhood. “Four of those children are unborn at this minute . . . . We’re going to have a bunch of bicycles and tricycles around,” Mr. Doty beamed.

stairway wood floor
Middle Line units give residents a way Up in housing. — Mark Alan Lovewell

Middle Line Road has 12 affordable housing units. There are six one-acre resident homesites with deed covenants to ensure that they stay permanently affordable. The owners of these sites build their own homes and lease the land from the town on a long-term basis.

The remaining properties, the ones being completed this month, are three duplexes, each containing two affordable rental units ranging from one to three bedrooms. Cedar shingles, green trim, new appliances, 97 per cent energy efficient heating units and clean, bright open spaces mark the new apartments. Light streams through windows onto hardwood floors, and the walls and stairways are freshly painted in creamy shades of off white.

Rick Senna kitchen
Rick Senna, project superintendent, shows off one unit’s kitchen. — Mark Alan Lovewell

It’s been a long and costly process at Middle Line Road, which began seven years ago and to date has cost $3.6 million. Final site work includes driveways and landscaping; at a special town meeting next month the town will ask voters to approve $25,000 to pay for this work.

The idea of a tight-knit community of family farmhouses in the back woods of Chilmark was first proposed in 2004 with an estimated price tag of $3.5 million. Voters backed the 21-acre project off Tabor House Road in 2005. After a series of public hearings, redesigns, requests for proposals, legal work to unravel issues with the access road and approval from the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, the project finally broke ground last October.

Seaver Construction of Woburn was awarded the bid for $1.9 million. Mr. Doty said this week the project was on budget — and with an added month to allow for construction discrepancies to be sorted out — on time.

“Since we knew many of the families have been in the Vineyard shuffle, moving from place to place, we were pushing to get this ready when their summer situation ended so they could move right in on Oct. 1,” Mr. Doty said. “Some of our tenants will have to do the Vineyard shuffle for 30 days — but one of the great reasons tenants want this is not because it’s a nice unit, but because it’s year-round.”

The last lotteries were held this week for the apartments. Chilmark residents or people who volunteered in town had preference in the draw. Two non-Chilmark families will move into apartments; the rest are from or associated with the town. There were 12 applications. The two-bedroom apartments were the most popular, Mr. Doty said.

Rent is on a sliding scale according to the family’s income, ranging from $825 to $1,400 a month.

The six resident homesites were awarded last year, and most owners are in the process of building or have finished construction and moved in. One unbuilt resident homesite lot is being held for Matt Bradley, a Navy medic currently on assignment in Afghanistan.

Each house is built by the homesite tenant and the homes vary in design but with the same cedar-shingled style seen throughout the Vineyard. Some are modular units that arrived pre-built; others were handcrafted by their owners and friends.

Mr. Doty emphasized the hard work that went into many of the houses, including the one owned by Jeff and Emily Day. Mr. Day is a Chilmark police officer; Mrs. Day is the town accountant.

“Jeff throughout the last year has worked weekends for the police department, 10-hour shifts, so he had a lot of regular weekdays open,” Mr. Doty said. “He was here working with carpenters, he did all the varnish work and an awful lot of work himself. That’s the sweat equity a lot of people have put in.”