The bumpy road to approval for the Bradley Square project in Oak Bluffs was extended a little last Thursday when the town zoning board of appeals voted to reopen the public hearing following a groundswell of letters to town hall and requests for further testimony.
Board chairman Kris Chvatal opened the meeting — held at the town senior center before a packed audience — by announcing that he had consulted town counsel Ronald H. Rappaport about the sheer volume of correspondence relating to the project.
West Tisbury selectmen on Wednesday revisited the idea of creating a town bylaw that would prohibit registered sex offenders from living or loitering near public spaces like schools and playgrounds — but tabled the matter after emotional debate.
Selectman Richard Knabel questioned the need for the bylaw, stating he preferred a preventive rather then reactive approach to address the problem. The two other selectmen — Dianne Powers and Jeffrey (Skipper) Manter — said the draft bylaw needs more work and legal review by town counsel Ronald Rappaport.
With so much attention focused on global warming and surging gas prices, interest in windmills is now at an all-time high across the nation — and also here on the Vineyard.
But renewed interest in wind turbines has brought with it a number of planning and logistical concerns. Much like the pre-zoning era of the Vineyard when neighborhoods and roads were laid out with minimal planning, there is now growing concern that a lack of uniform regulations could result in backyard turbines popping up all over the Island with little regard to aesthetics or scenic vistas.
An ongoing political fracas over a plan to repair the Oak Bluffs waterfront spilled into public view on Tuesday when selectman Kerry Scott accused one member of one town board of delaying repairs to the beach along Sea View avenue.
The statistics are sobering: Projections of how many buildings could built under current zoning on the Vineyard reveal that about 6,000 new homes could be added to the present number of 16,000 over the next 50 years. And if the Island were to maintain the current ratio of 56 per cent seasonal homes versus 44 per cent year-round homes, this would translate to a year-round population growth from the current 15,000 to about 21,000.
And those are conservative estimates.
Amid the excitement among his supporters about the rise of Sen. Barack Obama, the presumptive nominee for president for the Democratic Party — particularly in Massachusetts where voters recently elected Deval Patrick the state’s first African-American governor — race still matters here, members of an Island panel convened on Thursday argued.
