Echoing the concerns of two other Island towns, the Oak Bluffs select board delayed action this week on a draft annual town meeting article to create a Martha’s Vineyard housing bank.
At their meeting Tuesday, select board members shared concerns brought by Edgartown and West Tisbury in recent weeks following a review of the article by town counsel Ron Rappaport, who is also counsel for Oak Bluffs.
Mr. Rappaport’s review of the article, first requested by the Edgartown select board, has raised a number of questions about the housing bank proposal, including clarity of language and key differences between the draft housing bank plan and the land bank legislation, which it was modeled after.
The coalition to create a housing bank has been circulating the draft article in all the Island towns. Select boards in Chilmark and Aquinnah readily agreed to put the article on their annual town meeting warrants last month.
But Oak Bluffs board members took a different tack this week.
“I know a lot of questions have been raised, and I just want to know, did we make any progress on those questions?” select board member Jason Balboni asked members of the coalition who attended the online meeting Tuesday.
Coalition steering committee member John Abrams acknowledged the issues raised by Mr. Rappaport, and said the draft housing bank article is a work in progress.
“Our process is to work around all the select boards . . . hear the concerns,” Mr. Abrams said. “It’s really about whatever you see in the warrant article that grabs your attention.”
In addition to the questions raised by town counsel, board members brought up a few of their own concerns. Emma Green-Beach wondered whether priorities framed in the draft article, including that affordable housing projects address climate change and be located near existing services, should be compulsory.
“I wish that somehow, it sounded a little stronger,” Ms. Green-Beach said. “Not just priorities, but how are we going to apply these things to everything we do?”
Despite the concerns, Mr. Abrams and other coalition members asked the select board to place the draft article on the annual town meeting warrant.
But board members were not so eager to place the article on the warrant before more work has been done on it. They did agree to endorse the ideals of the housing bank and said the final decision should rest with voters.
But they said more clarity is needed.
“We need to bring a proposal to the voters that’s super, super clear,” select board member Brian Packish said. “I think you’ve done a great job, I just think there’s more work to be done.”
The Tisbury select board will take up the draft housing bank article at a meeting set for this afternoon.
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