Superior Court Ruling on Bridge Housing Dismisses Neighbor's
Attempt to Appeal

By JULIA WELLS

Marking one more win in court for the Martha's Vineyard
Commission, a superior court judge last week threw out a
neighbor's appeal of the Bridge Housing project planned for
Vineyard Haven.

The Hon. Richard J. Chin, an associate justice of the superior
court, ruled that Kenneth and Nicole Bilzerian have no standing, and he
allowed summary judgment for Bridge Housing and the 30-year-old regional
land use commission.

The ruling was issued July 7.

The 30-unit affordable housing project was approved by the
commission in June of 2003, after the project was reviewed as a
development of regional impact (DRI). The Bilzerians are abutters to the
project, which is planned for 24 acres formerly owned by the Norton
family off State Road in Vineyard Haven.

The project has not yet been approved at the local level and is
currently pending in front of the town zoning board of appeals. The
nonprofit Bridge Housing corporation, made up of local groups including
church groups, wants to build 15 two-family modular duplexes on the
property.

Relying on case law, in particular a 2003 case involving the Cape
Cod Commission, Judge Chin found that the Bilzerians had no standing
because they were neighbors but not an aggrieved party.

"The reasoning and holding of the [Cape Cod Commission] case
are sound and should be applied to this case," Judge Chin wrote in
the three and a half-page ruling.

"In this case, the Bilzerians were neither named parties in
the proceedings before the commission, nor were they allowed to
intervene in the proceedings," the judge concluded.

MVC executive director Mark London said yesterday that the ruling is
a small but important victory for the commission, which has been
buffeted by court appeals of DRI decisions in recent years. Over the
last three decades, the courts have generally upheld the commission and
the unique enabling legislation that created it in 1974.

"We are extremely pleased that the Martha's Vineyard
Commission's process has again been upheld by the courts,"
Mr. London said.