An Oak Bluffs resident has brought a lawsuit against the town challenging the award of an aquaculture license at Eastville Beach.
In a complaint filed in Suffolk County superior court in mid-October, Jacob H. Ludwig 3rd is asking the court to overturn a decision to grant Dan and Greg Martino an aquaculture license for use off Eastville.
The Martino brothers won approval for their two-acre oyster farm in September.
The start-up venture is planned for an area near the Vineyard Haven drawbridge, a site that has not seen aquaculture before.
Many neighbors of the abutting Eastville neighborhood have objected to the project, saying it will interrupt their view of the Vineyard Haven harbor and pose a hazard to recreational activity in the harbor and on the beach.
Now one neighbor has brought the case to court.
According to the complaint, Mr. Ludwig lives at 43 Beach Road, a property which borders Eastville Beach. He is a co-owner of the property with Patricia Ludwig, Wendy Ludwig and Amy Ludwig.
Mr. Ludwig is suing the town and the selectmen on the basis that they failed to conduct a comprehensive review of the project and violated due process. Among other missteps, the complaint says the town denied him the right to have representation by counsel, when, despite requests from Mr. Ludwig’s attorneys to postpone a hearing on the shellfish application, the hearing was not rescheduled.
It also says the Martinos did not notify him of the application the requisite 10 days before the first public hearing.
“The actions of the defendants constitute substantial errors of law apparent on the record that have adversely and substantially affected material rights of the plaintiff, other abutting property owners, the public and users of Eastville Beach,” the complaint reads in part.
In response, the town filed a motion in early December asking the court to dismiss the complaint, arguing that the abutter did not demonstrate substantial injury to his legal rights.
Town counsel also requested that the case be moved to Dukes County superior court because it concerns a local matter.
“No party ‘resides’ in Suffolk County — or in any other county but Dukes,” the motion reads in part.
The Martinos first proposed an aquaculture farm in Lagoon Pond in spring of 2013, but stakeholders objected to that plan. The shellfish committee denied the project, saying the proposed area was too large and would interfere with commercial and recreational shellfishing, as well as other recreational activity.
Now, Mr. Ludwig is claiming that the town used a different standard to approve the Eastville Project. “The selectmen’s basis for granting the Martinos an aquaculture license at Eastville Beach is ad hoc agenda and not uniform with its prior criteria . . .” the complaint says.
In addition to the selectmen, the town shellfish committee, Army Corps of Engineers and the state Division of Marine Fisheries signed off on the project.
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