As secluded white sand beaches become a commodity more precious than oil, the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank this week announced significant expansions at two of its most stunning beachfront properties.
Moshup Beach in Aquinnah will grow by half again as much, and Wilfrid's Pond Preserve in Vineyard Haven will more than double in size.
"The land bank prizes beaches among its very many priorities, and expanding what already is conservation is a good accomplishment for everybody," said land bank executive director James Lengyel yesterday.
The ghosts are quiet these days - if you believe in such things - but at the Vanderhoop homestead the screen door still bangs and the old wood sash windows rattle with the specter of a new future.
Purchased last year by the town of Aquinnah and the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank in a joint acquisition, the historic homestead is now set for its first fund-raising event.
The event will kick off a $300,000 restoration project aimed at converting the homestead to a museum and cultural center.
Land Bank Bids for a Woodlands Preserve
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.
The purchase price is $18.6 million.
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.
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.
High on Gay Head Cliffs, a Land Bank Beauty
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.
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 Moffet property runs along the entire length of the entrance road to the Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary on the eastern side.
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).
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.
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.
