The Martha’s Vineyard Commission voted 13-3 last night to approve a plan for a private 18-hole golf club on the site of an old subdivision in the rural perimeters of Edgartown, first spending nearly three hours developing a heavy set of more than 20 conditions which will force the developer to return to the commission on a number of fronts before the project can go forward.
New developers of the old Vineyard Acres II subdivision in Edgartown have filed an application with the Edgartown zoning board of appeals to build a private 18-hole golf club on the site once planned for 148 houses.
As proposals for golf courses begin to pile up on the Island, the Sheriff's Meadow Foundation released a white paper last week that among other things explains the reasoning behind a decision to oppose a golf course development on the MacKenty land in Edgartown, but not oppose a similar proposal for the Vineyard Acres II subdivision.
"A golf course at Vineyard Acres II — especially the right kind of course — would have far less environmental and ecological impact than the 148 houses that are allowed under the subdivision plan," the paper states in part.
Two Boston area businessmen and a Mississippi real estate developer have announced plans to build a private golf club on the former Vineyard Acres II property off the West Tisbury Road in Edgartown.
The would-be developers are Jay Swanson of Medfield, Owen Larkin of Boston and William Vandevender of Jackson, Miss. Their partnership is called Swanson Ventures L.L.C.
A prominent local conservation group and a national title insurance company are among an unusual array of parties who have now agreed to sell their land in the old Vineyard Acres II subdivision to a golf course developer, the Gazette has learned.
