The Edgartown planning board this week voted to back a plan to upgrade an ancient way in Katama, providing several suggestions to the select board on how the trail should be laid out. 

The town has been eyeing the revival of a nearly 350-year-old path, known locally as Swimming Place Path, for several years now. At its meeting Tuesday, the planning board recommended that the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank create a five- to six-foot-wide dirt path within the public right of way, with minimum clearing of trees in the area. 

The recommendation was downsized from past plans that envisioned a wider gravel path.

“I think these ancient paths are part of our being here on Martha’s Vineyard,” said planning board member Mike McCourt. “Once we lose these ancient ways, they’re gone forever.”

The project has been controversial, with several neighbors saying the creation of a path in their backyards would infringe on their privacy and potentially safety. The planning board recommended that the select board hold a meeting with abutters so they could propose changes.

The path, which is now overgrown, historically connected Road to the Plains and Herring Creek Road. With some of the neighbor’s concerns in mind, the planning board called for no trees to be removed and the path be marked on each end with a small sign sharing the path’s history with the people who planned to use it. 

Before the hearing, planning board member Michael Shalett announced that chair Lucy Morrison had resigned from the board that night. Robbie Robinson, the board’s alternate, joined the meeting as a full board member.

Select board chair Michael Donaroma attended the meeting as a representative of the land bank advisory committee. Before public comment, Mr. Donaroma said the land bank can help address concerns of privacy while planning the trail’s course.

“I think for both the homeowners that live there and the people that are walking the path… there’s a couple areas where a fence would certainly solve the problem,” Mr. Donaroma said. “There are some areas where some thickly planted areas would help. The land bank does this on occasion, and they do it totally on their dime.”

He also said the planning board and land bank should create a management plan before presenting to the select board, which would get presented to the public.

Steve Ewing, the Edgartown land bank commissioner, agreed with Mr. Donaroma. He said the land bank would need time to walk the path again and determine where fences would be needed.

“These paths are also for the benefit of the community to join neighborhoods and neighbors,” Mr. Ewing said. “[We’re] trying to get away from the automobile a little bit in this day and age, and anything we could do to, get outside and meet people and walk, I think, is beneficial for us all.”

During public comment, abutters re-iterated how at town meeting in 2022 the original vote for the project’s funding was conducted under the notion that the town owned the land. A title examination from the land bank’s attorneys, Reynolds, Rappaport, Kaplan & Hackney, in July revealed that the land belongs to the private landowners.

Abutters have been asking the board about the legitimacy of the vote each of the past three public hearings. Jenny George, whose property sits along the path, said they still don’t have an answer.

“We have asked you guys about the legitimacy of that vote, and someone was going to research it,” Ms. George said. “Has that happened?”

Mr. Shalett did not address the illegitimacy of the town meeting vote in his response, but told Ms. George that town voters received notice.

“The warrant articles were published for the public ways in advance of that meeting, so the public was made aware that such an article was on the warrant in regard to that recreational easement,” Mr. Shalett said. 

After the vote was taken Tuesday, planning board member Julia Livingston told abutters that even though the board is recommending the select board continue with the path’s restoration, neighbors' comments at the past three hearings did not go unrecognized. 

“Because of all of you, we have moved this thing from what might have been a 12-foot wide gravel path to maybe a five- or six-foot wide dirt path…” Ms. Livingston said. “I hope that you can feel like that’s a movement in the right direction, and that we listen to you.”