Chilmark voters early this week unanimously backed a plan for restoring Squibnocket Beach, ending a seven-month public review that involved town committees, coastal and environmental engineers, homeowner associations and members of the public.
On a cold, sleet-driven night, 85 voters turned out for the special town meeting Monday at the Chilmark Community Center. All but one of the eight articles passed unanimously and town moderator Everett Poole adjourned the meeting in less than 20 minutes.
The recommendation for Squibnocket calls for a new access road farther north from the eroding shoreline, a new parking area along Squibnocket Road, skiff access to Squibnocket Pond, and the potential for the town to lease a long stretch of beach from the Squibnocket Farm Homeowners Association. A portion of the new road running through wetlands would be raised several feet.
James Malkin, chairman of the town committee on Squibnocket, thanked the various town boards for their contributions and acknowledged the work of contractors Reid Silva and John Keene, who provided their services free of charge. “We also appreciate the people of this community who attended many of these meetings with us and offered input,” he said.
Voters approved the recommendation without a single question from the floor and authorized the selectmen to negotiate and execute the details. The selectmen have been working with landowners to acquire two parcels needed for the parking area and a portion of the new road, and with the homeowners association and the Vineyard Open Land Foundation to secure the additional beach area.
Following the meeting, voters and town officials lingered to reflect on the last several months and look ahead toward the next stages of the project.
“Let’s say this is not an ending,” said Charles Parker, a member of the Friends of Squibnocket, a homeowner group that has been actively involved in the issue. “In many ways it’s a beginning of a new phase. This is a long-term process of getting from an idea stage and a set of requirements to a plan. We are not there yet.”
Wendy Jeffers, who along with Tony Orphanos owns one of the parcels the town would like to use for parking, saw the process as the tip of the iceberg for other Island communities affected by coastal erosion. “We are predicting things that we’ve never been asked to predict before,” she said. “What’s the coastline going to look like in 50 years?”
Two of the town meeting articles on Monday aimed to clear the way for the town to pursue the land acquisitions. Voters agreed to appropriate up to $410,000 to lease the beach area, and up to $350,000 to acquire one or both of the smaller parcels.
It was a striking departure from the contentious annual town meeting last April when an earlier plan for Squibnocket was rejected. As part of that plan, the homeowners association had agreed to buy 1,000 feet of beach from the open land foundation and then lease it to the town. Zachary Lee pointed out Monday that in the original plan, the lease would have included a parking lot. Selectman William Rossi hoped the new agreement would include just the beach for a lower cost.
“We are looking to lease a portion of what we originally agreed to last year,” Mr. Rossi said, adding that the association seemed interested in spending less money than before. “So we have to renegotiate, but there is still a willingness to get something done to acquire more beach for town residents.”
Not all Squibnocket Farm homeowners support the idea of a lease. Rosalie Hornblower, whose family owned the area before the open land foundation took ownership, emphasized Tuesday that the intention of transferring ownership had been to protect the rural character of the land. She worried about the effects of people walking to the pond or possibly using the land for commercial purposes.
She said the homeowners association had not voted to pursue the lease and that the open land foundation had been unresponsive to her inquiries. “There has just not been a lot of communication,” she said.
Mr. Doty noted at a selectmen’s meeting Tuesday that the land already is used by the public for walking, surfing and other purposes. “As an informal arrangement it’s worked extremely well,” he said. “I’d like to see if we could come up with a formal arrangement that gives the town residents the right to walk along that beach for the next 100 years.” He added: “It is basically keeping things the way they are today, but just formalize it so we know we have the right to do that.”
Selectman Bill Rossi believed a final agreement could be reached as early as March, in time for the annual town meeting in April. A $280,000 Coastal Zone Management grant awarded for the project last fall must be spent by June 2016. A similar grant had been awarded last spring but was then reduced when the town reapplied to extend the deadline. The reduced grant must be spent by June 2015.
At a selectmen’s meeting Monday morning before the meeting, Mr. Orphanos and Ms. Jeffers questioned some of the details of the recommendation but said they were eager to work with the town to develop a lease.
The selectmen planned to meet Wednesday in executive session to further discuss the acquisition of the two parcels, which are each assessed at $149,000.
Despite her general support for the recommendation, Ms. Jeffers voted against the appropriation of town funds for the lease. “My concern about that was that they asked us for a two-thirds majority, which is the language that goes into eminent domain,” she said. But she added: “I am certainly willing to lease my property under terms that work for everybody. And [the selectmen] seem to be amenable, so that’s fine. I really want to make this work. And it’s been a long year.”
David Damroth, who attended most of the Squibnocket committee meetings last year, thanked the committee and the selectmen for helping develop what he called a wonderful solution. “It was an amazing amount of work,” he said.
Mr. Doty agreed. “It was a work of real commitment from those seven people, and I think the selectmen need to thank you,” he said. “It was extremely well done.”
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