Marking the second time this year that a state court has recognized protective land use regulations in the town of Edgartown, the Massachusetts appeals court early this month upheld a local board of health regulation which prohibits guest houses in the Katama area.
The regulation, first adopted by the town board of health in 1985, was rooted in concern about contamination of the groundwater at Katama. The case is important because it upholds the broad powers of town boards of health.
An unprecedented proposal to designate the entire town of Aquinnah as a district of critical planning concern (DCPC) drew heartfelt statements on both sides of the issue from a small crowd of town residents last week.
“We need some time to explore our options, because right now the permits are coming in faster than we can keep up with them,” declared Peter Temple, a member of the town planning board.
“The trophy-house building we have to stop, before Gay Head turns into another Mattakesett,” said resident Elaine Vanderhoop.
The family room in the women’s building at Vineyard House, the Island’s only sober living community, will be named for Lucy Cox, a longtime supporter of the the organization and its mission.
The Massachusetts chapter of The Nature Conservancy announced this week it will purchase the John Hoft Farm, 90 acres of rolling pastures and unspoiled morainal woodlands which embrace Duarte’s Pond and the moist bogs off Lambert’s Cove Road in West Tisbury.
The farm is owned by Daniel Alisio and will be named the Hoft Farm Preserve, in memory of his late wife, Marguerite Hoft Alisio, whose family owned the farm for over 100 years.
Nearly 20 years ago in his landmark Vineyard book People and Predicaments, Island psychiatrist Milton Mazer recalled the beginnings of Martha’s Vineyard Community Services. He wrote:
“The venture to provide human services for the Island was begun in 1960 by a small group of Island physicians and clergymen. Their almost daily experience with the many Islanders overwhelmed by human predicaments had led them to look for remedies, and a psychiatric service seemed a good place to begin.
Ronald H. Rappaport, the respected and ubiquitous Martha’s Vineyard attorney whose work cut across nearly every aspect of Island life, died unexpectedly Friday night in Vineyard Haven
In 1972, the Vineyard was largely undeveloped, a quiet place with a scattering of mostly modest summer homes. The natural landscape was unspoiled with broad, open vistas to the sea. There was no zoning except for small areas in the town centers.
The creation of the Martha's Vineyard Commission harks back to meetings around kitchen tables in the late 1960s and early 1970s when the first comprehensive zoning maps were drafted for the Island.
Preservation efforts at Flat Point Farm topped the list of activities for the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank in 2023, followed by partnerships in affordable housing.
