This letter is about a looming mistake of epic proportions — the North Bluff seawall project in Oak Bluffs — and to ask why we are having something so out of character, industrial and urban, forced on us when sand and rock and natural plantings placed in front of a seawall can accomplish more than sheet metal.

The seaview waterfront committee was created by the selectmen in 2008. Its mission was to develop a comprehensive plan to restore the Oak Bluffs beaches and waterfront from the end of the seawall at Farm Pond all the way to the south jetty that forms the entrance to the harbor.

Natural protection. — Courtesy Kerry Scott

The committee was broadly representational, populated by town officials both elected and appointed and residents both year-round and seasonal.

The focus was on beaches as environmental resources and human resources. The historic, generational, social, recreational, economic, visual, environmental and protective features of our waterfront and its in-town public beaches (with class A swimming waters!) were all given equal weight.  The Polar Bears were as much considered as were eel grass beds.

All things were considered — swimming, walking, fishing, playing, resting, healing, comfort facilities, universal access, safety, optics from the water and the land, the connection to the sea, and the overarching importance of beaches as central to the Island experience — all were on the table.

The seaview project addressed the inevitability of sea level rise and increasingly ferocious ocean storms. It would employ the best natural methods and materials to conserve our maritime resources. It would take advantage of existing protective features of the built environment, bolstering them with additional natural protective elements.

It provided for human enjoyment, conservation and infrastructure. It was beautiful, very much in the Island vernacular.  It was supported by Oak Bluffs town meetings which funded the studies that would provide the underlying scientific data required for engineering and design.

The seaview waterfront committee did a remarkable job of addressing, in one comprehensive plan, conservation, infrastructure protection, intermodal transportation, the importance of our connections along the waterfront to varied transportation facilities, economic growth, the historic social significance of the beaches, and the urgent need to protect our wastewater system’s discharge beds under Ocean Park.

Over a period of a couple years, the committee held extremely well-attended public hearings, visioning sessions, presentations, and scoping sessions with state and federal regulatory and oversight agencies. The project captured the imagination of beachgoers and conservationists, was applauded by regulators for its cohesiveness and reach, and presented amazing opportunities.

The vision and scope of the committee so impressed our legislators their respective staffs were anticipating earmarks of tens of millions of federal transportation dollars.

The project included removing road runoff from beaches, protecting remarkably sound if aged sea walls, defending waterfront parks, homes, roads, and sidewalks, safeguarding the wastewater system’s effluent beds.

It involved sand, beach grass, rosa rugosa and other sturdy seaside plants, rock, cement and wood.

Everything was sustainable and renewable. Nothing was over-built, over-engineered, over the top.

There would be more rock revetment, a strengthened and lengthened jetty, perhaps some breakwaters.

There would be rafts for diving once again, a fishing pier, places to rinse off after a swim. It provided comfort facilities, boardwalk access across dunes, and critically important universal access not only to the beach but also to the water.

In spite of the Oak Bluffs conservation commission’s inexplicable pushback, there would be regular beach renourishment efforts and beach maintenance.

So what happened?

The seaview waterfront project was hijacked by the conservation commission and it devolved under their regulatory rather than visionary oversight from a system-wide approach into a series of choppy projects that have ranged from the successful — dunes on one part of the waterfront — to bizarre — the urban, out-of-character work on the North Bluff, the costly and complete failure of a rain garden in a waterfront park, and the irresponsible deposit of toxic waste materials from under the drawbridge on one of the Island’s most beloved family beaches.

A very ragged performance, even for a board that over a period of many years has neglected to dredge the Sengekontacket channel and protect our shellfish resources, promulgated no plans for regular beach renourishment, allowed the North Bluff to deteriorate without even simple interventions, failed to remove road runoff from beaches, and proposed no maintenance or repairs for the seawalls.

In the meantime, millions of dollars in anticipated federal funding evaporated, the seaview waterfront vision faded away, and the conservation C=commission haphazardly chased funding that resulted in unnecessary expense and urbanization — all because they lacked a coherent vision for the waterfront.

So here we are. The conservation commission has now brought us to the point that their engineer, working under their direction and with their full support, has proposed eliminating one of our beaches and armoring a portion of our waterfront with corrugated sheet metal. The commission did everything they could to make sure the project was never reviewed by anybody but themselves.

Then something wonderful happened. The newly energized Oak Bluffs planning board referred the project to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission — finally, some accountability for the Oak Bluffs conservation commission.

The fact remains, however, the commission was about to break ground on a proposal that changes the face of the North Bluff, a prominent gateway to the Island without a single public presentation. Instead of a beach and a coastal bluff, people will now arrive to an urban park set on top of sheet metal, all hardscape and high railings — the commission refers to it as a plaza. The entire look and feel of the North Bluff will be dramatically altered, as will people’s landing experience in Oak Bluffs.

We are losing an entire coastal resource to something that may not work, could cause more harm than good, its performance questionable over the long haul. It will look industrial and overbuilt and it is hugely expensive. We have no idea what it will cost to maintain and what it will take to extend its life, but maintenance isn’t something we’re very good at anyway.

How did we get from sustainable and natural to epoxy-coated? From beloved family beach to no beach at all?

Oak Bluffs has done a pitiful job of caring for its waterfront, but to those who would have us believe the seawall has failed, I would point out that it might be old, but it is not universally considered failed.

Here’s what should happen now:

Restrict the conservation commission to their statutory duties. Restore the waterfront visioning process.

Halt the proposal for the North Bluff, go back to the drawing board and insist that engineers and designers understand us well, economically as well as environmentally, and, certainly, aesthetically. Consider repairing the wall while revisioning the entire project.

Follow the example of the planning board, the seaview waterfront committee, and the Martha’s Vineyard Commission and involve the public.

Stop chasing funding for piecemeal projects. Do it all and do it right.

Restore and preserve small but mighty beaches, just like the ones that have always existed along the waterfront. They’re the reason the seawall isn’t failed. They are also what the voters and taxpayers have been promised.

Use the extraordinary political clout enjoyed by a town on an Island cherished by players on the world’s stage. Appeal to people who love the Island and appreciate our preference for natural solutions over engineered, who come to us for respite because of the way we look and feel. Ask for visionary help in conceiving and funding projects that preserve and protect rather than armor and destroy.

If we all work together, stop allowing a handful of local and state officials to marginalize us, condescend to us, and lock us out of the decision-making, we can recapture the excitement of doing something right, distinctive Island. This isn’t any of those.

Kerry Scott
Oak Bluffs