Island towns are coming to the defense of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission after a recent ruling cut the planning agency out of the permitting for 40B housing developments. 

Over the last two weeks, Chilmark, Edgartown, Oak Bluffs and West Tisbury all voted to send letters to the Island’s lawmakers that call on them to take action to protect the commission’s jurisdiction over the housing projects. Doing so would, in turn, help prevent the Vineyard from becoming overdeveloped, they argued. 

“For decades, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission has exercised its greater regulatory powers to ensure that these developments reflect the Island’s needs and priorities,” the towns wrote. “If the Commission can no longer perform this function, the values it has protected for decades will be rapidly and permanently compromised.”

The battle for jurisdiction was kicked off by developer William Cumming, who has repeatedly argued that the Martha’s Vineyard Commission has no right to be involved in the large-scale housing project reviews. In April, the state housing appeals committee sided with Mr. Cumming and ruled that the commission did not have permitting authority over 40B projects, so-named for their statute number in Massachusetts law. 

If the ruling stands, town leaders said it would strip away one of the strongest defenses against projects that could mar the Island’s rural character. 

“For 50 years, the Island towns and their residents have relied on the Commission to fulfill its statutory mandate to safeguard Martha’s Vineyard against developers who put profit ahead of the priorities of everyday Islanders,” the towns wrote.

Enacted in 1969, the 40B legislation allows developers to have a streamlined permitting process if at least 20 per cent of the proposed housing units are designated for affordable housing. The law was put into place to make it harder for communities to override the needs for affordable housing through extensive permitting and zoning. 

Under 40B, instead of having to go to several different local town boards and committees, an application is consolidated into a single request under the zoning board of appeals. Here on the Island, though, the commission has also had its own separate review process, and has often been the agency that hammers out most of the details on projects before they are reviewed by the zoning board. 

The dispute before the state right now is whether the commission, which has a wide-ranging purview that stretches beyond what zoning boards can enforce, is considered a “local board,” and should be bypassed. 

The issue came to the fore when attorneys for Mr. Cumming’s Edgartown Gardens project, a proposed senior development on Upper Main street in Edgartown that was denied by the MVC in October, argued to the Housing Appeal Committee that the MVC should be considered a local board, and therefore shouldn’t have its own review process. 

In April, the state committee agreed, saying that Massachusetts should have a unified system across all 351 of its municipalities and the Vineyard shouldn’t be an exception with extra veto power. 

The MVC is appealing that decision, filing a lawsuit in Dukes County Superior Court last month, and the towns are now seeking the help of state Sen. Julian Cyr and state Rep. Thomas Moakley to reinforce the commission’s role as a regional agency. 

Former Chilmark select board member James Malkin raised the issue with the Chilmark select board last week. He said that the MVC is the only entity that can get a handle on the “unimpeded growth” on the Island. 

“Density on this Island – density in our town – without the check of the MVC, I think would be very detrimental to what I perceive are the interests of this town,” he said. 

The present ruling against the MVC’s authority represents a loss of local control, he added.

“I’m flabbergasted at this,” Mr. Malkin said. “Simply letting developers come in and chew this place up without regard to our local towns and character. To me, that’s suburbanization just waiting to happen.”

Select board member Rebecca Haag agreed. 

“It’s not about whether the MVC always makes the right decisions or not,” she said last week. “But it does put people through a rigorous process, and generally makes a proposal better, and has had the ability to restrain unfettered development [when] our town regulations and bylaws don’t matter under 40B.” 

Edgartown voted to send the letter on Monday; Oak Bluffs followed suit on Tuesday; and West Tisbury voted on Wednesday. Aquinnah and Tisbury haven’t taken the matter up yet.

MVC chair Peter Wharton was heartened to see the support from the towns as the commission’s authority comes under attack.

“Without the backing of the voters and without our legislators hearing our concerns and taking them seriously, the character of the Island and our ability to develop affordable housing that makes sense for Islanders is in danger,” he said. 

The commission has been in conversation with Mr. Cyr and Mr. Moakley about potential ways to help maintain the commission’s authority. Mr. Cyr said he understood the intent of the law, but on the Vineyard, 40B projects can play out differently on the mainland. 

Here, they may end up with an overwhelming majority of market-rate units that few if any Islanders could ever afford. Edgartown Gardens had previously estimated that the market-rate one-bedroom condominiums could go for about $1 million. 

“It’s almost certainly going to be a second or third home or an investment property,” Mr. Cyr said.

The Island’s state senator said he has talked to Gov. Maura Healey about the situation and has been considering options that are available. He declined to go into detail on the different scenarios, but said that there could be a way to enshrine the MVC’s past power through the recent seasonal communities designation that came from the Affordable Homes Act or via a special exemption. 

Whatever the method, it may be an uphill battle to get a legislative solution.

The State House is getting close to the end of the legislative calendar; most bills that have a chance to get through were filed last year, said Mr. Moakley. 

“We are sort of left with looking for an appropriate moving vehicle, a larger bill that we could tack it on as an amendment,” he said. 

The 40B law is also contentious state wide, so carving out a special exemption for the Vineyard would be tricky, Mr. Moakley added. The mission for the legislators would be to get across that this isn’t so much of a change, but keeping status quo.

“Our goal here is to clarify a practice that has been in place for decades,” he said.

As the towns put their weight behind the MVC, the developer behind Edgartown Gardens is again suing the commission in court. Mr. Cumming’s Green Villa, a 116-unit project that was approved by the commission in May, filed a lawsuit in the Dukes County courthouse on June 15, arguing that the commission did not have jurisdiction over the development and overstepped its authority in applying several different conditions on the project.

Green Villa attorney Peter Freeman declined to comment on the suit, citing the pending litigation. 

Commission executive director Adam Turner said Wednesday that he had not yet seen the latest lawsuit, but if the housing appeals committee ruling holds and the other cases prevail in favor of the developer, 50 years of precedent would be overturned. 

He appreciated the towns’ support and said the commission is seeking a way to solidify the agency’s powers. 

“We hope that our elected officials will listen to the towns as failing to do so will have lasting effects on the Island,” he said. “To me, the act speaks for itself, but in order to clarify the act, we hope to move forward.”

Haley Sandlow contributed reporting on this article.