A long-running effort by an Aquinnah property owner to build a house on a lot off Moshup Trail was blocked by the town planning board plan review committee this week, which found the lot lacks adequate road frontage under new zoning rules adopted by the town eight months ago.
After a series of public hearings that began in October, the committee voted 7-0 on Tuesday night to deny a special permit for James Decoulos to build on the two-plus-acre property.
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court last week upheld the town of Aquinnah and the Martha’s Vineyard Commission in a key leg of a complicated and long-running property rights case that will ultimately decide whether a large swath of rare coastal heathland along Moshup Trail remains forever wild or is opened up to private development.
Marking a key win for the town of Aquinnah in its long-running legal battle with James J. Decoulos and Maria Kitris, who want to open up Moshup Trail for development, the Massachusetts Appeals Court ruled yesterday on two separate fronts, finding:
• Mr. Decoulos has not won the right to subdivide two lots he owns off Moshup trail.
• The Aquinnah townwide district of critical planning concern is valid.
A Middlesex Superior Court judge last week upheld the validity of a unique townwide planning and zoning district in Aquinnah.
The decision, which was entered on Friday by the Hon. Julian T. Houston, found in favor of the town and the Martha's Vineyard Commission against a developer who is seeking to open access to and subdivide parcels of vacant land off Moshup Trail. The developer, James J. Decoulos, has filed more than 10 different legal challenges against the town, a number of which are still ongoing.
A longstanding land use battle off Moshup Trail in Aquinnah
resurfaced on another front this week, when the town conservation
commission took up the application of a landowner who wants to build in
and around a wetland.
An eight-year legal battle over property rights in Aquinnah resurfaced last week when the Massachusetts Court of Appeals reversed a 2001 state land court decision that had the potential to block the development of more than 100 acres of rare coastal heathland off Moshup Trail.
The complicated case centers on whether a group of private landowners and developers should be granted access to a vast area of landlocked lots between Moshup Trail and State Road.
