Island planners raised concerns this week about a new garden center and nursery operating in Oak Bluffs.
The Martha’s Vineyard Commission held a hearing Thursday on Jordan’s Nursery, a project that is largely built out but still needs approvals from the Islandwide agency. Stormwater runoff and additional nitrogen pollution from the 17-acre property were some of the biggest worries expressed, as well as the permitting process.
Located at 218 Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road, next to the Eversource building, the nursery is backed by Michael Donaroma. The property is owned by Bayes Norton Farm, and was leased out to Atwood Farm LLC, the development company owned by William Cumming that has proposed several housing projects.
Atwood Farm LLC is subleasing the land to Mr. Donaroma, who is seeking to relocate some of his operations from the Upper Main street Donaroma’s location in Edgartown.
Mr. Donaroma is asking the commission for its blessing for a commercial nursery that would have several hoop houses, two retail sheds, one glass and steel greenhouse, a pole barn, workforce housing and an office. All of the operations would be situated on 9.6 acres.
Some commissioners wondered why the development didn’t come to the commission sooner.
“It feel like this is another thing where it’s already happened, and, in retrospect, we’re looking at it going ‘Well, we would have put it on the back lot or further away from the watershed…’ It’s frustrating and I don’t understand how this happens,” said Aquinnah commissioner Jannette Vanderhoop.
MVC executive director Adam Turner said there were several factors that led to the project only coming before the commission this month.
Norton Bayes Farm had an agricultural tax exemption for the property, but, after years of the property sitting fallow, the owners were told by Oak Bluffs that it needed to be used for agricultural purposes to continue getting the credit, according to Mr. Donaroma.
The owner then decided to clear the trees from the property, and started to look for someone to use it agriculturally.
The clearing itself wouldn’t have triggered a review by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, the body that oversees large development projects on the Island. But the creation of more than 6,000 square feet of outdoor commercial space, a 77-space parking lot, the potential for the storage of fuel or hazardous materials and other factors all would require MVC review, according to commission staff.
The project wasn’t initially sent over to the commission, despite the insistence of Mr. Turner and former chair Fred Hancock.
“The building inspector went back and forth, saying you can build all the poly [hoop] houses you want [under an agriculture exemption],” said Mr. Donaroma.
In Massachusetts, a law known as the Dover amendment protects land being used for agriculture, education and religious purposes from being subject to many local zoning laws. Still, Mr. Donaroma said he asked for confirmation because, as a former chair of the MVC, he believed it would need to because of the commission’s wide purview.
“I wasn’t exactly ready to go in the beginning because I didn’t know really the whole operation – what I wanted to do,” Mr. Donaroma, a former Edgartown select board member, said. “But once I did get to know this plan that we put together, we actually walked it up [to the MVC] ourselves.”
Oak Bluffs had a change in building inspector earlier this year, and soon after Adam Petkus took over the role this spring, he referred the project to the commission.
Commission members wondered how far their jurisdiction went back on a project that is already underway. Some members asked if their review would extend prior to the work to set up the hoop houses.
“What he is proposing, including all that he’s put on it, is within our review,” Doug Sederholm said. “Referred late or not, he may or may not have had any control over that, but the entire proposal is under our review.”
A substantial portion of the Donaroma’s operations is planned to move from the Edgartown location to the Oak Bluffs nursery. Retail floral operations would stay in Edgartown.
Mike Mauro, the commission’s traffic planner, said that the new location would largely consist of a relocation of the existing customers, not a surge in addition of business. That change could pull some traffic out of the busy Triangle intersection in Edgartown.
Based on traffic statistics, Mr. Mauro estimated the new location would generate 271 trips per day, though he couldn’t immediately give a breakdown between the busy spring landscaping time and the slower winter periods.
Much of Thursday’s conversations revolved around water at the site, and the commission brought in former Cape Cod Commission water scientist Ed Eichner to help evaluate the Jordan’s proposal.
The current design would put too much nitrogen into the already impaired Lagoon Pond watershed and mitigation will be needed, Mr. Eichner said.
“The way the project site is designed, it has that retention basin that drains all of the stormwater on the site into that retention basin, and that is within the subwatershed to Upper Lagoon,” Mr. Eichner said. “So any of the stormwater phosphorus is ending up in that basin and will eventually get into Upper Lagoon Pond without any sort of mitigation.”
The commission asked the applicants to supply a stormwater plan, and Ms. Vanderhoop suggested a catch basin similar to one that the commission required for a recent auto garage plan in West Tisbury.
No decision was made Thursday and the commission will resume the public hearing on Nov. 19.