Oak Bluffs residents voted to acquire the Island Theatre and tabled a new bylaw regulating large events on residential properties at night two of annual town meeting on Wednesday.
The second half of town meeting lasted over three hours. Though it drew a smaller crowd, the night saw lively discussion on new bylaws and millions of dollars in debt exclusions following Tuesday night’s passage of the town’s $46 million budget and $1.9 million general override.
Residents voted 164-31 to allow the town to borrow up to $5 million to acquire the Island Theatre, potentially by eminent domain. The historic building has sat vacant at the top of Circuit avenue since 2012, was previously declared a safety hazard and is showing signs of disrepair.
Owners Brian Hall and Ben Hall Jr. approached the microphone on Wednesday night to urge voters not to approve the plan.
They said they’ve had trouble selling the building since 2010 due to a lack of wastewater capacity. Both acknowledged their displeasure with the shape the building is in, but suggested that prior action from the town hindered their ability to do maintenance, leading to further disrepair.
“We sat on our hands, and we should’ve at least kept it looking decent, and we didn’t, and I’m sorry,” Brian Hall said.
They expressed a desire to fix up the building’s facade ahead of the summer season and insisted it’s structurally sound.
“If I break my promise, then you can always come back and take it,” Brian Hall said.
But several voters said they were tired of looking at the dilapidated property and argued that the owners had already squandered too much time without addressing the issue.
“The Halls are not keeping up with what they’re supposed to be doing,” said voter Billie Jean Sullivan. “What are we supposed to do?”
There was some discussion of an amendment to lower the $5 million figure to $2.8 million, to match the owners’ stated asking price for the property, which is assessed by the town at just over $1.6 million. But select board members said they needed the financial flexibility to be able to make and execute decisions related to the property after getting the okay from voters.
“What you’re doing is really tying the hands of the town,” select board member Tom Hallahan said.
If the question is approved again at town elections on Thursday, the town will be able to formulate a plan to acquire the property and decide what to do with it, which could include demolishing it.
In addition to the Island Theatre debt exclusion, voters easily approved a $1 million debt exclusion to repair the Dukes County avenue pump station and another $825,000 for engineering at the Lagoon Pond watershed to mitigate nitrogen load.
These two articles, along with the Island Theatre article, will need to be approved once again at Thursday’s town election in order to go into effect.
Voters opted to table a bylaw seeking to regulate large events at residential properties by a significant margin after several voters said they felt it was too vague, threatened the culture and economic viability of Oak Bluffs and attempted to force too much oversight on how residents use their homes.
The bylaw required that property owners planning events of more than 50 people come before the select board to request a permit. It also would have prohibited events intending to sell alcohol and food or charge admission and asked for 45 days’ notice. Graduations, weddings and birthday parties would have been exempted.
Voter Keija Minor said she felt the bylaw would deteriorate the culture of Oak Bluffs by quashing residents’ ability to celebrate and organize, especially ahead of midterm elections.
“This is a very dangerous precedent to set for a town that has a history of grassroots organizing,” she said. “From suffrage to civil rights, it’s been part of the DNA.”
Voter Shelley Christiansen said that the proposed bylaw was an outsized response to a small number of Oak Bluffs properties that have repeatedly caused issues.
“It’s like sending a tidal wave to extinguish a match,” she said.
Voter Leah Brown, who serves on the Oak Bluffs zoning board, questioned the bylaw’s enforceability in terms of number of guests or event type.
“I would be embarrassed to send this bylaw to the attorney general,” she said.
Though the events bylaw did not pass, a new bylaw seeking to crack down on blight in town did get town meeting approval, despite concerns from some voters that it was too vague and overreaching. Vacant properties will now need to be registered with the town, and owners will be hit with daily fines if their buildings fall into significant disrepair.
Voter Dana Mylott wondered if the language was clear enough on what could be considered “blight.”
“How far are we going to push this issue?” he asked.
A much-anticipated article adding new regulations for short-term rentals was tabled after planning board vice chair Chris Chambers said the board wanted to review and revise it further.
Town elections will take place on Thursday. Polls will be open at the Oak Bluffs Library from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.
This article appears in April 17, 2026.
So much hard work goes into one of the greatest forms of democracy… town meeting thank you to all those involved. Private property rights were under assault last night. From events to rentals to deciding how to maintain your personal property. We even took someone’s property. If you own property in Oak Bluffs be on notice, it’s not yours. It’s the current regime that has control of it hopefully the Towns people will wake up and realize how dangerous last night was.
I’m sure that there are reasons why a property is blighted. The town should help homeowners with loans/financing so that the homes are not blighted. Most homes that might be considered blighted have retired senior homeowners and they might not have the finances to renovate, especially since construction can be so expensive on the island. Where is empathy for people that own these homes? Help them first or leave them alone!!!
I think article 153 still has some merit in that parties charging admission shouldn’t be allowed at residences. This turns it into a commercial venue for the evening. The whole of Oak Bluffs shouldn’t become an business opportunity if we want to preserve the quaintness and peace of our residential neighborhoods.
As a business owner that had the island property on the short list of potential locations for our company I am saddened once again how a bunch of short-sighted folks “leading” a poorly run town think it’s ok to constantly over run their budgets and then stick it to property owners to make up the difference and now think it’s just fine and dandy to go borrow $5Mil to grab a building — to do what with????? In business (which the town is not) this is the kind of decision that gets people fired. So happy our business has an anti-corruption clause.
Thank goodness the town is not a business. I don’t want the library, fire or police departments run by a profit minded CEO. Nor many other civic activities. It’s called a democracy, and the people have had their say. Not some CEO beholden to wealthy shareholders.
This is outrageous! The owners wee willing to sell. Know we will spend 3-5 times more plus legal fees!!! Just plain stupid.
The owners had 14 years to sell this property, were incapable of doing so, and allowed it to fall into deeper and deeper disrepair. You may not be aware that this is a pattern of behavior by this property owner. The same thing happened with “the yellow house” on a highly visible location on Main Street in Edgartown. Edgartown took the property, repaired and painted it and eliminated a major eyesore in the town’s major shopping district. The owners also have a building on the Main Street in Vineyard Haven, also in a prime shopping area, that has stood empty for over a decade. This a pattern of behavior.