Nearly four months after the start of its public hearing on a proposed home-based automotive shop in the Vineyard Meadow Farms subdivision in West Tisbury, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission closed the proceedings Thursday night after a final round of testimony from the applicant and abutters.
The commission will continue to take written testimony on the West Tisbury Auto Care proposal until 5 p.m. March 26, hearing officer Brian Smith said.
When the MVC hearing opened last November, commissioners heard a litany of objections from residential neighbors on Vineyard Meadow Farms Road and Waldron’s Bottom Road, who expressed concern about noise, traffic and chemical spills from the proposed two-bay garage.
Private wells in the area were found in 2019 to have been contaminated with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), long-lasting chemicals found in firefighting foam that can harm human health.
The continued West Tisbury Auto Care hearing was postponed several times at the request of applicants Katherine Voshell and Nick Lucas, who have made numerous updates to their original plan to address their neighbors’ concerns.
“When we originally started, this concept was a very loose plan, and… we’ve been refining it more and more because of our neighbors,” Mr. Lucas said Thursday. “This is our home, too, and I’m drinking that water.”
The West Tisbury Auto Care plan now includes a tight tank, which is a sealed receptacle for any chemical runoff, and an oil-water separator, into which snow or rain tracked into the facility will drain.
Both appliances will be maintained by a professional disposal company, and West Tisbury Auto Care is required to keep the records of this service for three years, Mr. Lucas said.
Brian Massa, an environmental scientist engaged by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission to examine the revised plan, testified Thursday that it met a high standard of protection.
The garage floor would be covered with epoxy to prevent any seepage through concrete and the company has engaged a qualified firm to remove waste chemicals and respond rapidly in the event of any spill, Mr. Massa said.
Should a spill occur, he said, the response firm would be able to clean it up before contaminated groundwater reaches nearby wells.
“Groundwater moves, in our area, about a foot a day,” Mr. Massa said.
The garage also would have absorbent materials on hand to mop up spilled materials that would then be disposed of by the removal company, he said.
To address traffic concerns, Mr. Lucas and Ms. Voshell have moved the entrance to their proposed business from Waldron’s Bottom Road to Vineyard Meadow Farms Road and agreed to an appointment-only business, with no more than seven cars on the site at any one time.
Tow trucks will not be permitted to drop off vehicles without advance permission, Mr. Lucas said.
Some neighbors continued to press their opposition Thursday. Anthony Marchigiano of Waldron’s Bottom Road cited the earlier well contamination and others said that letters of support for the business that appear in the MVC’s written record did not come from anyone in the neighborhood.
“The neighbors are almost uniformly against this,” said Joseph O’Donnell of Waldron’s Bottom Road.
The West Tisbury planning board also has opposed the garage in a letter citing concerns over groundwater, noise and scale.
“Although the property is located close to the main [Edgartown-West Tisbury] road, impacting the abutting neighborhood minimally, the board finds the location for this request to be beyond the scope and scale of allowable use within the Rural District,” planning board chair Leah Smith wrote.
Should the Martha’s Vineyard Commission approve the West Tisbury Auto Care application, Ms. Voshell and Mr. Lucas still must seek a special permit from the West Tisbury zoning board of appeals, which would be charged with overseeing the business’s compliance with the terms of the permit.
The commission is expected to deliberate and decide on the project next month.
This article appears in March 20, 2026.