The Martha’s Vineyard Commission will consider this week whether to loosen conditions attached to their 2014 approval for the Barn Bowl and Bistro in Oak Bluffs. Owners of the bowling alley which opened 11 months ago have asked for longer hours and live entertainment.
Many customers who have flocked to the lanes are backing the changes, while neighbors whose concerns about noise and disruption led to the conditions in the first place are crying foul.
Both sides were represented at a well-attended public hearing before the commission last Thursday.
Bowling alley owners Sam Dunn, Robert Sawyer and Larkin Reeves want to open earlier (8 a.m.) and stay open an hour later (11:30 p.m. on weekdays and 12:30 a.m. on weekends). They also hope to remove a restriction on live amplified music, install a 20-foot lamppost in the parking lot, and increase the capacity of an upstairs event space from 50 to 94 people.
“We really need these changes in order to get this business into a place where it’s stable and sustaining,” Mr. Dunn said at the hearing.
The commission approved the bowling alley project as a development of regional impact (DRI) in 2014 with 35 conditions, including nine related to ambient noise. The developers had agreed, among other things, not to have amplified live music, and to position all air-handling units facing the parking lot or areas zoned for business. They also agreed to upgrade exterior walls to insulate noise and to install signs urging customers to respect the neighborhood.
A commission staff report noted that the project does not comply with the condition related to air-handling units, and another related to affordable housing.
Developers had agreed to provide two affordable apartments, but only one has been certified by the Dukes County Regional Housing Authority.
Mr. Dunn said some of the air-handling equipment faces the abutting homes because the town of Oak Bluffs did not allow it to be installed on the roof of the bowling alley.
To mitigate any added noise, developers propose raising the height of a wooden fence, and adding a plywood layer on the side facing the bowling alley. Mr. Dunn said that would reduce the noise by up to 12 decibels. They have also planted two evergreen shrubs to help block the view, although nearby condominium owners say that was done against their will.
And he said the 50-person limit in the upstairs event space had been tied to concerns about wastewater that no longer apply since the building is connected to the town sewer. (The commission had originally required a denitrifying septic system, but later allowed the modification.)
Abutters said if the changes are allowed, it will make a bad situation worse in an area on the fringe of downtown where residential and commercial properties mix.
“Mr. Dunn doesn’t have adequate soundproofing as it is and yet he is asking to make even more noise,” Byron and Kathleen Barnett wrote in a letter to the commission.
“Our property is directly behind the balls dropping and pins crashing and we hear them from the minute the bowling alley opens to the time it closes.”
They accused Mr. Dunn of undermining the local review process by agreeing to restrictions only to have them reversed later on.
Kathryn Sullivan, an attorney representing residents of the Hiawatha Path Condominiums, said the original conditions for the project had been “integral and indispensable” to the MVC’s decision in 2014. She also noted a town bylaw that prohibits loud noises that can be heard 150 feet from a building.
But customers told the commission they would welcome the changes.
Debbie Milne, who has taken part in gatherings in the upstairs event space, called it “the best venue we’ve ever used,” and argued that the modifications were not major. “I think they are little increases that will help keep the bowling alley in business,” she said. “We clearly need one in the community.”
In a letter, Cindy Flanders, a weekly customer who bowls in the leagues, also supported the changes. “This is clearly a business that puts a lot of effort into what they do,” she wrote. “This business has been responsible in its infancy. They have earned the privileges they seek.”
Mr. Dunn dismissed the idea that the changes would lead to parking problems or bad behavior, arguing that neither has been an issue so far.
“Bowling alleys have failed on Martha’s Vineyard repeatedly, and the reason they fail is because they didn’t have a comprehensive entertainment experience,” he said. “Without the bar and the restaurant this was a no-go project for us.”
The commission will begin a post-public hearing review at a meeting this Wednesday.
In other business Thursday, a final public hearing was held on the Lagoon Ridge subdivision, a plan to create 23 lots on 32.5 acres, making use for the first time of an Oak Bluffs bylaw that provides flexibility for cluster developments.
Wastewater and minimizing the amount of nitrogen entering the Lagoon Pond has been a major concern. The subdivision lies in the pond watershed.
Developer Davio Danielson has proposed using denitrifying septic systems that he said have proven effective on Cape Cod. David Bennett, president of Bennett Environmental Associates of Brewster, conducted an independent review of the wastewater proposal and agreed it would meet commission requirements for nitrogen entering the watershed.
But commissioner Doug Sederholm said those requirements fall short of what has been recommended by the Massachusetts Estuaries Project.
“Our policy limit has no rational relationship to what needs to be done to bring Lagoon Pond back to a healthy state,” Mr. Sederholm said, noting that the proposed development would still add nitrogen to the watershed. “We can’t penalize you,” he told Mr. Danielson. “But I’ve got to say, shame on us. This is not helpful to the pond at all.”
The MVC closed the hearing and is expected to vote on the project on June 2.
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