The federal agency that promised Oak Bluffs $10 million to fix a crumbling section of East Chop Drive four years ago says it is no longer required to award the town the money, citing permitting delays and the agency’s decision to limit grant extensions moving forward.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) declined to give the town more time to access the grant to repair the eroding stretch between Brewster avenue and Harrison avenue, which has been closed for nearly a decade, after the eligibility period to use the grant lapsed in May of this year. The project has been plagued by delays, and certain state and federal permit applications necessary for the project to proceed are still outstanding.
Town administrator Wendy Brough, who is also the project manager, announced the loss of funding at last Tuesday’s Oak Bluffs select board meeting and said the project’s future remains uncertain.
“Right now, we are in a bit of a stall with East Chop regarding the funding,” Ms. Brough told the board.
The town first closed East Chop Drive to motor vehicles in 2018, citing its precarious position on an eroding bluff overlooking the Vineyard Sound. The stability of the area has been an issue for decades, worsened by major weather events such as Hurricane Bob and Hurricane Sandy.
The town’s proposed solution is to construct a 1,200-foot barrier along the bluff to restore what has been lost to erosion and protect the area from future degradation.
The town got to work on the plan to repair and reopen the area in 2018 and received word from FEMA in 2022 that it had won the $10 million grant. But shifting priorities at FEMA and a delayed project timeline led the agency to pull the grant — a possibility Ms. Brough first raised in April 2025.
“The denial was tied to FEMA’s policy direction concerning extensions under an expired grant program and broader grant closeout and administrative management objectives, rather than any identified deficiency in the East Chop project itself,” Ms. Brough wrote to the Gazette last week.
Meanwhile, the project is only getting more expensive. Back in 2018, its estimated cost was $16.9 million. That cost has now risen to $33.3 million, according to the town.
In a letter to the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency (MEMA), FEMA acknowledged that the East Chop project was experiencing “significant permitting delays” but nonetheless made the unappealable decision to not offer the grant extension.
“FEMA is strategically limiting application and performance period extensions to improve administrative management of the program while continuing to comply with applicable regulatory and policy requirements,” the letter reads. “Accordingly, FEMA has denied the Recipient’s request for a twenty-two-month Period of Performance extension.”
The East Chop project is still waiting on approvals from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management after applying for permits in March 2025.
A spokesperson for the Army Corps told the Gazette that the Massachusetts Office of Coastal Zone Management must make a decision before it can finalize a permit decision.
“For projects of this scope and technical nature, a review duration of several months is standard,” the spokesperson wrote.
Ms. Brough said the Office of Coastal Zone Management is supposed to make a decision after the appeal period for a different permit through MassDEP concluded this week.
The East Chop project first gained Martha’s Vineyard Commission approval in 2018 and subsequently attained the other permits necessary to complete the project. The town then brought on municipal planning firm Tighe & Bond in 2023 to help execute the plan, at which point consultants deemed the plan faulty as approved, identifying issues with the engineering and logistics of the project.
This essentially necessitated a second round of permitting, delaying the project further.
“This additional engineering and permitting review affected the project timeline,” Ms. Brough wrote.
FEMA first granted Oak Bluffs a two-year extension on the grant in May 2024, pushing the project end date to May 2026. In May 2025, the town applied with FEMA for another extension to 2028, but it was denied.
Oak Bluffs voters first approved borrowing $6.9 million for the project four years ago. Voters reapproved the measure at town meeting in 2024. Ms. Brough said the town has not yet borrowed those funds.
Additionally, Ms. Brough said that Oak Bluffs has not spent borrowed or local funds on the project at all thus far. She said permitting and design work was funded through a $3 million state grant, $1.5 million of which has been spent.
According to Ms. Brough, the path forward now is to seek money from the state through a Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities grant in January 2027.
“While this is a disappointing setback following several years of planning, design, permitting, and coordination, the East Chop project remains one of the Town’s highest coastal resiliency and infrastructure priorities,” Ms. Brough wrote.
Oak Bluffs highway superintendent Rich Combra told the Gazette he has not seen the area of East Chop Drive significantly deteriorate in recent years, but that the work needs to be done if the stretch of road is to reopen.
“At some point, it has to be done…” he said. “As long as we don’t do anything, the road will stay closed.”
This article appears in October 2 2026.