The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank announced this week that it has purchased nearly 12 acres in the rural wooded perimeters of Edgartown, completing a long-planned project to protect the westerly entrance to town as largely undeveloped land — both the fields and woodland.
The land bank paid $900,000 for 11.8 acres. The seller was Philip J. Norton Jr. The purchase will boost the total size of the land bank’s Ben Toms Preserve to nearly 30 acres, with some 2,000 feet of frontage on the West Tisbury Road.
A joint purchase last month by the town of Tisbury and the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank completes a decades-old aquifer protection plan around the Manter well.
The town and the land bank paid $400,000 for 9.5 acres off Old Holmes Hole Road, with the town putting in $300,000 and the land bank $100,000. The transaction took place on August 24.
One of the listed sellers was Ron Monterosso, acting as a trustee for Redmont Realty Trust, which owned a fractional interest in the property. The sale was handled through a trustee appointed by the Dukes County Probate Court.
The Martha's Vineyard Land Bank wants your ideas on how to
spend some $10 million of accumulated revenue. Plus, commissioners at
the land bank are game for fielding questions on policies that govern
the almost 2,000 acres of public lands it owns.
Revenues fell $1 million at the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank in
the fiscal year just ended, reflecting a distinct new cooling in the
overheated real estate sales market that has made an indelible mark on
both the economy and the culture of the Island in recent years.
The land bank fiscal year ends on June 30 (because the date fell
over the weekend this year, the land bank closed the books on Friday,
June 28).
Felix Neck, Land Bank and Audubon Buy Moffet Land to Preserve
Sanctuary Borders
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
In a three-way partnership that will protect the last key piece of
undeveloped land at one of the oldest wildlife sanctuaries on the
Vineyard, the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank, the Massachusetts
Audubon Society and the Felix Neck Wildlife Trust announced yesterday
that they will buy 34 acres from Lucia Moffet for $2.55 million.
The Vineyard could see as many as 7,032 more homes on its 17,475
remaining acres of developable land, officials from the state Executive
Office of Environmental Affairs (EOEA) said at an Island forum held
Thursday night.
"That's a relatively short time frame to be faced with
some tough choices," said Christian Jacqz, director of
Massachusetts Geographic Information System, in a presentation to Island
officials at the Howes House in West Tisbury.
Chappaquiddick's Space Fund, Land Bank Buy Island Trail Link
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
With the national economy stuck in neutral and nonprofit groups
scrambling to compete for a shrinking pool of donor dollars, a quiet
movement on the tiny island of Chappaquiddick is gaining momentum among
landowners to buy open space in their own backyards.
New System of Trails May Result from Sale in Aquinnah
By CHRIS BURRELL
In a move that could resurrect a long-lost museum in Aquinnah and
create a network of trails over a dramatic south shore seascape, the
Martha's Vineyard Land Bank has agreed to buy the six-acre
Vanderhoop homestead just south of the Gay Head Lighthouse.
Land Bank's Chappaquiddick ‘Prize' Will Bring
Island Trail to Pond's Edge
By JULIA WELLS
The Martha's Vineyard Land Bank announced this week that it
will buy the Wasey property on Chappaquiddick, a grassy, windblown
four-acre crest that embraces the unspoiled inner shore of Cape Pogue
Pond.
Deal Would Protect 190 Acres; Developer to Build 26 Houses
By JULIA WELLS Gazette Senior Writer
A long, bruising battle over the fate of the southern woodlands in
Oak Bluffs took a stunning turn this week when the Martha's
Vineyard Land Bank announced that it has signed an agreement to buy 190
acres from developer Corey Kupersmith, including the old Webb's
Camping Area.
