“The project did not provide sufficient benefits to outweigh the overwhelming detriment to the rural, natural character of the area, and the Vineyard as a whole. The development would commit significant acreage toward luxury homes in a suburban setting, which would not be a prudent use of the Island’s dwindling supply of remaining developable land. The Island is rapidly approaching its carrying capacity. The impacts of overdevelopment will be detrimental to the island. Growth for growth’s sake is not necessarily good or desirable and is a poor fit for Martha’s Vineyard.”
That was the Martha’s Vineyard Commission in 2020, denying a 42-unit, 164-bedroom development on the same site as the proposed Katama Meadows subdivision. Even with the commission’s vote last week to cut seven luxury homes from the plan, Katama Meadows is still larger (with 20 per cent more bedrooms) than the plan MVC rightly denied six years ago.
We now know that the developers appealed the MVC’s decision, determined to monetize virgin forest land and take their profits back to Utah with them. But they lost the appeal.
In his decision, Judge Wilson cited Supreme Judicial Court rulings that “the Commission was created in response to studies that, unless action was taken, the unique natural, cultural and historical beauty of the Nantucket Sound Islands would be lost in quest for private development…There is public interest in preserving the environment and protecting a way of life…the island of Martha’s Vineyard has unique and perishable qualities.”
All of this is even more true today than in 2020. Indeed, approving Katama Meadows now would set a new precedent for future such developments, accelerating the suburbanization of the Vineyard.
Regarding the small but laudable affordable housing component of the proposal, the town should instead focus on the nine affordable housing sites identified in its Housing Production Plan, which the town already owns.
The commission properly and powerfully enforced its legal responsibility to preserve and protect Martha’s Vineyard from over-development when it denied this project back then, and it should now re-affirm that decision.
The MVC got it right the first time.
David Snead
Edgartown
This article appears in August 14, 2026.
Thank you. This is the most excellent, articulate letter to the editor I’ve read in many years. A concise accurate portrayal of this development and the review process to date.