Members of the MacKenty family in Edgartown are now in the final stages of negotiations to sell some 200 acres of their Edgartown Great Pond land to a group that plans to build a golf course on it, the Gazette has learned.
“We are negotiating, but we can’t comment on much until we have an agreement,” said Jeremiah MacKenty this week. “But yes, I’d say we are fairly close,” he added.
As discussion begins to heat up around the issue of whether to build private golf clubs on the Vineyard, a citizens group has formed to oppose a golf club development planned for some 200 acres of land along the Edgartown Great Pond.
Called the Coalition for Preservation of Island Resources, the group includes a number of property owners near the planned golf course project. The key organizers for the group are Edgartown residents Rick Bausman, Sally Apy and Candice Hogan.
A large parcel of land along the Edgartown Great Pond, which is now planned for an 18-hole golf course, was the subject of a legitimate and equivalent offer for purchase from a prominent and well-funded conservation group about 18 months ago, the Gazette has learned.
A group of developers who want to build a golf course along the Edgartown Great Pond heard a team of scientists dismantle their environmental science last night, alongside an outpouring of statements from a striking array of Vineyard residents who urged the Martha’s Vineyard Commission in passionate tones to reject the golf course plan.
“We need to think about Martha’s Vineyard and why do we all live here?” said Tara Hickman.
“Trade a natural piece of heaven on earth for a manicured, hyper-fertilized artificial landscape? No thank you,” declared Liz Bradley.
A citizens group that opposes a proposal for an 18-hole private golf club along the Edgartown Great Pond took its turn in the spotlight this week, responding sharply to an advertising campaign started by the golf course developers last week.
“They’ve ‘Gone Organic.’ We Think They’re Dead Wrong. Do You?” declares a full-page advertisement that appears in today’s Gazette.
The advertisement is a rejoinder to paid advertisements in both Island newspapers last week from the developers who want to build a golf club along the Edgartown Great Pond.
The developers who want to build a golf course along the Edgartown Great Pond jacked up the pressure this week in an attempt to gain favorable votes from members of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.
Opponents of the golf course project also are waging a lobbying campaign, including a series of paid advertisements, but the campaign by the developers is now clearly accompanied by high-pressure tactics more commonly seen in Boston than on the Cape and Islands.
In a move that is expected to knock down many established barriers to the land protection movement, The Nature Conservancy announced this week that it will buy and put into private conservation 103 acres of land along the Edgartown Great Pond. The property just last year was planned for a private luxury golf club.
Formerly owned by Katharine and Robert Bigelow, the property stretches from Meetinghouse Way to the Kanomika Neck shore of the Great Pond fronting Mashacket Cove, and includes a large expanse of globally rare sandplain grassland.
The family that plans to build a private championship caliber golf course along the shore of Edgartown Great Pond is fully aware that its plans will be examined with scrupulous care by Island environmentalists.
State police Tuesday said they are not considering the death of Tafari Campbell, who was found in Edgartown Great Pond earlier this week, suspicious. A post-mortem examination by the state medical examiner found no external trauma or injuries.
