Selectmen voted Wednesday to call for reconsideration and indefinite postponement of the housing bank proposal.
Holly Pretsky

West Tisbury Joins Call to Postpone Housing Bank

<p>West Tisbury voters will convene at town meeting Tuesday to decide their part in two key regional issues.

West Tisbury voters will convene at town meeting Tuesday to decide their part in two key regional issues: the evolving housing bank proposal and funding for a controversial plan to rebuild the regional high school track.

The housing bank proposal has been approved in West Tisbury, but now appears to be headed back to the drawing board after four Island town meetings defeated the measure. In light of that, selectmen agreed this week to call for voters to reconsider the proposal and postpone it in favor of more study.

And the high school track project remains unsettled amid divided opinions over turf versus natural grass.

The meeting is technically two meetings — a special town meeting and the continuation of the annual town meeting.

The special town meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the West Tisbury School gymnasium and will be immediately followed by the continued annual town meeting. A quorum of 124 voters is needed to convene.

Town moderator Dan Waters will preside. Free child care will be provided (advance registration is required with the library).

An article to create the housing bank was approved on April 10, but a second, companion article to consider the funding mechanism for the housing bank was postponed until April 30.

Voters in Edgartown, Tisbury, Chilmark and Oak Bluffs have all defeated the housing bank. In Chilmark this week, voters also backed an alternative that aims to send the proposal back for redrafting in Island towns. Edgartown voters took a similar stance at their annual town meeting.

Aquinnah will vote on the issue next month.

Meeting Wednesday, West Tisbury selectmen said the housing bank should be an all-Island effort.

“I think time has passed and events have happened since the town meeting voted to put forward the housing bank article,” said selectman Cynthia Mitchell, participating in the meeting by phone. “I think a motion to reconsider is appropriate.”

Selectmen voted to ask town counsel to write a short amendment that would indicate the town’s interest in working with the rest of the Island to form a housing bank.

“Clearly our town has a strong feeling about affordable housing,” Mrs. Mitchell said. Selectmen also decided to ask Ted Jochsberger, a member of the town affordable housing committee, to present the amendment at town meeting.

“If we’re going to do this, the Island as a whole should be comfortable with it, and they’re not,” town administrator Jen Rand said.

“I think we have a plan here,” selectman Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter 3rd said. “I think it’s a good plan.”

At the first meeting Tuesday, voters will also consider whether to allow the high school to use excess and deficiency funds for design work on a new track and field project at the regional high school. Funding for the track project caps years of Islandwide debate about the merits of natural grass versus artificial turf.

The high school needs approval from four Island towns to spend the excess funds on the first phase of the project, which includes the track and infield using some artificial turf.

Chilmark turned down the request their annual town meeting Monday. West Tisbury will be the second town to consider the question. Aquinnah has scheduled a special town meeting on May 7 to decide the question. Edgartown, Tisbury, and Oak Bluffs have green-lighted the plan by opting not to call special town meetings.

Comments

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 04/24/2019 - 21:27

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BS Oak Bluffs

Why not adding an affordable food bank, gas bank, propane and oil bank, clothing bank, electricity, health care bank? Come to think of it let's have a bank that pays for everyone's expenses! People who don't have the skills and work ethic to live here deserve to live here regardless of the cost and the rest of us have an obligation to pay for it!

Summer resident Off Island

I second this motion. Where else in the country do people feel they have a right to an affordable home in an area they can't afford to live?

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 04/24/2019 - 21:42

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Mark Edgartown

Creating an unregulated bureaucracy with disproportionate funding and unequal benefit to certain towns would be a disaster. Any incremental tax revenue, which nobody can accurately estimate, is better served to alleviate potential future tax increases and budget overrides. If the housing bank comes back up for vote, keep in mind the property tax increases that could have been mitigated.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 04/26/2019 - 15:37

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Terry Donahue Edgartown

The track isn't about turf or grass it is about having a facility for our kids. The existing track will be condemmed in the Spring of 2020 leaving our students without a facility. The MVC will review the issue and render a decision on the field material.

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