The long-planned beach restoration project at Squibnocket Beach is moving forward.
At the annual town meeting Monday, selectman Bill Rossi, who has been negotiating with the landowners this year, withdrew two articles asking for approval to acquire or take by eminent domain the two parcels. Mr. Rossi confirmed Tuesday that both deeds were in hand and he hoped to close the deals this week. The two properties will be used for a new parking lot and roadway.
Both will be purchased outright rather than leased, an option that many residents preferred since it would give the town more control over the land. “There was a strong, strong sentiment against leasing the property,” Mr. Rossi said.
Voters at a special town meeting in February had approved spending up to $350,000 to acquire one or both of the parcels, as part of a larger plan that developed from a six-month public review process last year. The article on Monday included language to allow the town to take the properties by eminent domain. Each parcel was valued at $142,800.
Mr. Rossi said the pending agreements are in line with what voters approved in February, and that the total cost was just under $350,000.
“We were looking at entering into a lease at a much lesser amount, but the conditions attached to the lease were just not acceptable to us,” he said, explaining that one of the property owners had insisted on having veto power over decisions related to the new parking lot and other features of the project. “We probably paid too much for it, but we didn’t want to have anything hanging over our head for the next 100 years,” he said.
The town has agreed to pay $175,000 for a lot owned by Tony Orphanos and Wendy Jeffers and $150,000 for a lot owned by Peter Weldon.
The restoration plan will involve building a new access road to the homes at Squibnocket Farm, and a new parking lot along Squibnocket Road. Part of the road running through wetlands will be raised several feet. The plan also calls for removing a stone revetment and parking lot farther south that are threatened by erosion.
As part of an earlier plan, the Squibnocket Farm homeowner’s association was to purchase a large stretch of beach and lease it to the town. The new plan will likely include a similar agreement. The association has contracted with the Vineyard Open Land Foundation to acquire 1,500 feet of beach property, including an area along Squibnocket Pond, and has an agreement with the town to lease the area for 100 years, contingent on the permitting of the new roadway.
Association president Larry Lasser said this week that the roadway will be in line with the plan voters approved in February and will be paid for by the association. “This is exactly what the town wanted,” he said. The beach area will be smaller than what the earlier plan called for, since it will not include space for a new parking lot. But it will also be less expensive. The amount of the sale and of the 100-year lease were still confidential, but Mr. Rossi said the lease was “significantly less” than the $410,000 proposed last year. “We are very pleased,” he said.
Mr. Lasser called the recent developments “an important milestone” in the association’s efforts to protect its sole access point for vehicles. But the moment was also bittersweet. “None of us imagined that we had to do this, but nature has intervened,” he said. The process has already involved “an enormous amount of legal and engineering expense,” to examine the various proposals during the public review last year, he added.
The project will still require permits from the conservation commission, the Department of Environmental Protection, and possibly others. Town conservation agent Chuck Hodgkinson, who is managing the town’s portion of the project, was unsure whether the new roadway would also require approval of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.
The town may begin construction on its own portion of the project as early as this spring. In order to benefit from a $20,000 Coastal Zone Management grant that was awarded last year, money must be spent by the end of the fiscal year, on June 30. Another Coastal Zone Management grant for $280,000 must be spent by June 2016.
At a selectmen’s meeting last week, Daniel Greenbaum, who served on the town committee that developed the new restoration plan last year, urged the selectmen to complete as much of the work as possible by the June deadline.
But the timing and scope of work would depend largely on the homeowner association’s schedule. If the association happens to get the roadway permitted and built before next spring, Mr. Greenbaum said, the town could then take out the revetment and add the new parking lot under one contract and save money. Otherwise, the town may want to get started on the parking lot and retaining walls sooner to make use of the grant.
“All this stuff has to start pretty soon,” Mr. Greenbaum said.
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