In a wide-ranging meeting Thursday, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission listened to public comment and continued hearings on a slate of proposed projects, including the Safe Harbor Marinas expansion plan, an old house demolition, Navigator Homes and the Stillpoint educational nonprofit.
More than half a dozen neighbors of the marina attended the meeting and voiced their opposition to a planned reconfiguration of the onetime Burt’s boat yard on Lagoon Pond Road.
Safe Harbor Marinas is proposing to remove several old buildings on the site and to relocate and expand the racks for storing boats out of the water. While the reconfiguration will accommodate 30 more boats than the marina currently stores, Safe Harbor officials have said the expansion will add no more than six or seven vessels a day to the pond.
Marina neighbors pushed back during the hearing’s public comment period, saying that the pond has already become overburdened with boat traffic in recent years and its water quality is suffering,
“The lagoon... is in terrible danger, and it needs to be improved,” said Barbara Kopans, a member of the Lagoon Pond Association, expressing concern about the marina’s plans to store additional boats on the property.
“These are all motorboats — two, three engines, some of them,” Ms. Kopans said. “There can be fuel leaks. There can be head [toilet] leaks. There can be cleaning products... that get into the lagoon and there can just be garbage.”
Safety on the pond — and in the water — is also at risk, said Ms. Kopans and other speakers.
Louise Dreck said she and her husband Ralph have seen a steep increase in speeding boat traffic on Lagoon Pond, where they used to swim from shore to shore.
“We wouldn’t dare to swim across the lagoon any more,” Ms. Dreck said, adding that even a near-shore swim platform proved too dangerous for her grandchildren due to power boat traffic. “We have a boat and we don’t even take it out... because we literally do not feel safe,” she added.
There are no vessel speed limits or no-wake zones in Lagoon Pond, which is divided between Oak Bluffs and Tisbury.
“The lagoon is barely policed by either Oak Bluffs or Vineyard Haven and somebody’s going to get killed,” said Larry Gitlitz, who registered strong opposition to the Safe Harbor Marinas project.
Tom Zinno advocated for no-wake zones without expressing an opinion on the marina development, saying that the two towns should work together to manage boat traffic and vessel speeds in the pond.
Sisters Tara Webb Duey and Andra Minio heartily opposed the project, arguing that it will be a catastrophe for the pond’s ecology.
“This is just the most heartbreaking project I’ve ever seen,” Ms. Minio told the commission.
MVC hearing officer Doug Sederholm, who chairs the commission’s land use planning committee, continued the hearing to Nov. 3.
In other business Thursday, the commission resumed its hearing on the proposed demolition of a 1900 house at 43 Look street in Vineyard Haven.
While questioning builder Michael Morrison on the design of the home’s proposed replacement, commissioners were displeased to learn the rendered drawing he submitted with the application does not show what the structure will actually look like.
“The rendering is for customers ... a serving suggestion,” said Mr. Morrison, explaining that a second-floor porch shown in the drawing is not part of the plan.
Expressing confusion, MVC chair Joan Malkin asked Mr. Morrison whether the building plans in his application reflect exactly what is intended to be built on Look street.
“By the factory? Yes. By us? No,” replied Mr. Morrison.
An evidently frustrated Mr. Sederholm moved to continue the hearing to Oct. 20, urging Mr. Morrison to submit plans that show precisely what’s proposed.
“We have them,” Mr. Morrison said, before the commission voted 13-3 in favor of continuing the hearing.
The commission also continued a hearing on the Navigator Homes nursing home and workforce housing complex to Oct. 20. Commissioners discussed drainage, grading and landscaping plans for the project, but Mr. Sederholm said some information requested from the applicant had come in too late for review at this week’s meeting.
Also Thursday, the commission heard plans on Thomas Bena’s proposal for the Stillpoint property in West Tisbury, where he wants to create an educational nonprofit with classes, workshops and other activities in an existing barn that can hold up to 100 people.
Located next to Polly Hill Arboretum, Stillpoint would be open daily from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. for classes and nature walks, according to Mr. Bena’s update. About 50 to 60 classes a month would take place, with group sizes from 10 to 40 people. Evening events in summer would involve 40 to 60 patrons and three to six staffers or volunteers, two to three nights a week.
Mr. Bena said he has been talking with the property’s abutters, who are concerned about traffic, noise and other environmental impacts, particularly from larger events that may also take place at Stillpoint.
“Events with more than 80 people will be limited to once a week,” he told commissioners.
“We’re not sure we’ll have weddings, but if we do have weddings we won’t allow amplified music or tents outside,” Mr. Bena said, adding that weddings with more than 80 people would be allowed no more than four times a year.
“We’re completely dedicated to working with the abutters,” Mr. Bena said.
Commissioners Ben Robinson, who is one of Mr. Bena’s advisors on the project, and Jim Vercruysse recused themselves from the Stillpoint hearing, which was continued to Nov. 3.
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