The Martha’s Vineyard Commission voted 10-6 to approve the regional high school athletic field project at a dramatic meeting Thursday night, capping a long-running and often acrimonious debate over synthetic turf fields.
The Oak Bluffs board of health held off on making a decision about a moratorium that could stall plans for a new artificial turf field at the regional high school.
The Edgartown board of health this week voiced its support for a moratorium on artificial turf fields that is currently under consideration in neighboring Oak Bluffs.
In a brief two-page judgment Wednesday, state Land Court judge Kevin Smith threw out the Oak Bluffs planning board’s denial of the project, saying it is protected under a provision of state law that allows educational uses to skirt some zoning restrictions.
Attorneys for the town of Oak Bluffs and the Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School committee made their final arguments Friday morning before state land court judge Kevin Smith in the dispute over a planned artificial turf field at the school.
The Nov. 3 status conference will be the first court proceeding since the judge ruled in September that the Oak Bluffs planning board went beyond its authority when it denied the school’s turf field plans.
Both the town of Oak Bluffs and the regional high school committee believe the ongoing dispute over an artificial turf field should not go to a full trial, but the two parted ways on how the case should be resolved.
