The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank has signed a contract to purchase 41.1 acres on Chappaquiddick, including some 900 feet of shoreline on Cape Pogue Bay.

The acquisition will be added to its existing Three Ponds Reservation, bringing the total contiguous land area to 357.7 acres.

In an announcement on Monday, the land bank said the land, at the end of Jeffers Lane, would cost $4.95 million. The sellers are Judith Self Murphy, E. Baldwin Self Jr. and Karen Self Osler.

The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank envisions a new campground as part of its management plan for its 234-acre Southern Woodlands Preserve. Dan Feeney, the owner of the Vineyard’s only currently operating campground, envisages problems with that.

At Tuesday night’s public hearing to consider the draft management plan, Mr. Feeney emerged as the only person with significant objections to it.

A rolling meadow that has been used for sheep grazing off State Road in Tisbury will be protected thanks to the purchase of a conservation restriction by the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank.

The land bank commission announced on Tuesday that it has signed a contract to buy a restriction on seven acres owned by Kristen Kingsbury Henshaw. The purchase price is $301,000. The field is located about .2 miles from the land bank’s Tisbury Meadow Preserve.

The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank Commission held an open session on Monday seeking public comment on its properties and management plans. The meeting was held at the Vineyard Transit Authority second floor office at the airport business park.

One person attended: Bill Straw of Vineyard Haven, who suggested the land bank move up on its priority list the acquisition of properties that help in the movement of people along the side of roads, for example bicycle paths.

In a clear sign of a cooling real estate market here, revenues at the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank fell in 2007 for the second straight calendar year. The total number of real estate transactions also was down last year, for the third year in a row.

The land bank collected $10.9 million in revenues in 2007, compared with $11.6 million in 2006, a drop of seven per cent.

And the land bank recorded 1,403 real estate transactions in 2007, a drop of five per cent from the previous year, when 1,474 transactions were recorded.

The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank has added another 400 feet to its growing stretch of Atlantic Ocean beach off Moshup Trail in Aquinnah.

The land bank announced this week that it has bought a 4.1-acre lot on the ocean side of Moshup Trail from Sandra and Tatnall Hillman. The purchase price was $400,000. The property abuts the land bank’s Moshup Beach, which now will include some 2,000 feet of shorefront. With the acquisition, the land bank beach will now end a few feet from Philbin Beach, a town resident beach.

Land Bank Acquires Aquinnah Oceanfront, Scenic Chilmark Field

By IAN FEIN

The Martha's Vineyard Land Bank this week added another 400
feet of Aquinnah white sand beach to its oceanfront holdings, and also
acquired a scenic field on South Road in Chilmark. Both up-Island
properties are roughly eight acres. The purchase prices were $2.25
million and $875,000, respectively.

Pond Stays Closed for Further Study

State Environmental Affairs Secretary Rejects Land Bank Management
Plan at Lambert's Cove Road Kettle Pond

BOSTON - Citing concerns about potential impacts to water
quality and protected species, the Massachusetts Secretary of
Environmental Affairs last month denied the Martha's Vineyard Land
Bank management plan for its proposed Ice House Pond Preserve.

The Martha's Vineyard Land Bank will seal its largest-ever deal today, handing over $18.6 million to Connecticut developer Corey Kupersmith and officially taking ownership of 190 acres of the southern woodlands in Oak Bluffs.

West Tisbury Assessors Lose Tax Challenge

By ALEXIS TONTI

The Massachusetts Court of Appeals this week overturned a decision
by the state Appellate Tax Board and ruled that the Martha's
Vineyard Land Bank is exempt from all taxation, upholding the power
vested in the conservation agency by its enabling legislation.

The case is an appeal of a decision first made by the West Tisbury
board of assessors that ordered the land bank to pay about $700 in taxes
on property bought in fiscal year 2002.

The ruling was issued Wednesday.