In a landmark decision which marks a sweeping victory for the Vineyard and deals a crippling defeat to the Herring Creek Farm Trust, the chief justice of the Massachusetts Land Court upheld three-acre zoning in the town of Edgartown yesterday. The decision is believed to be the most important legal opinion for the Vineyard since the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled in favor of the Martha's Vineyard Commission on the Island Properties case nearly two decades ago.
The widely respected Boston trial attorney whose work on Martha’s Vineyard spanned more than four decades, died March 4 at Massachusetts General Hospital.
It began with a suburban-style subdivision plan, polished
like a shiny apple: Maximum density, 54 luxury homes, two beach clubs
with swimming pools.
It ended last week with a record real estate sale and a
subdivision plan of a markedly different color: Six new luxury homes
added to five existing homes and a vast sweep of farmland saved
forever.
But between the beginning and the end of the Herring Creek
Farm story there is another story.
When Steven McCormick was a law student, he asked a professor
to explain the exact meaning of the word perpetuity. The law
professor's reply to the young student was simple and direct. "It
means forever - and a day," the professor said.
Forever and a day is exactly how long the farm fields will
now be preserved at the Herring Creek Farm in Edgartown, and on the
Vineyard this week Mr.
Ending months of speculation and more than a decade of bitter warring over development plans - both in and out of court - the 215-acre, ecologically rare Herring Creek Farm in Edgartown was sold this week for a record $64 Million.
The new owners of the storied Great Plains farm include The Nature Conservancy, the FARM Institute and three private buyers.
Herring Creek Farm, the storied and richly diverse Great Plains farm
in the rural coastal perimeters of Edgartown, is now set to be sold for
a record price to an eclectic group that includes two nonprofit
conservation organizations and two private buyers.
A 32-lot luxury home subdivision plan for the Herring Creek Farm in
Edgartown cleared the final hurdle for approval this week, but if a
complicated private agreement for the sale of the farm is completed in
the months ahead, the subdivision may never be developed.
The leading spokesman for the Herring Creek Farm Trust told the Edgartown planning board this week that the sale of the farm to a private buyer now hinges on the board's approval of a luxury home subdivision plan for the farm.
The Herring Creek Farm Trust has filed a new lawsuit against the Martha's Vineyard Commission, appealing a recent decision by the commission to eliminate a private beach association from a development plan for the farm. The 32-lot luxury home development plan for the farm was approved by the commission in November. The approval was accompanied by some 22 conditions. One condition eliminated a 250-member private beach association from the plan.
FARM Institute, the novice non-profit dedicated to bolstering the
Vineyard's agricultural heritage, is putting its first Island home
up for sale, planning to surrender a foothold in the storied Herring
Creek Farm.
The transaction will help bankroll the institute's vision for
neighboring Katama Farm - a 190-acre spread that the town of
Edgartown turned over to FARM Institute this spring.
