The times they are a changing --- on Martha's Vineyard

Septic Ban Points to Pond Protection is the title of a recent article in the Vineyard Gazette that outlines a new regulation affecting vacant land owners in Ocean Heights and Arbutus Park.

Water pollution is the #1 factor that’s going to limit the density and development of the Vineyard in all geographic areas. We’ve known this for years, and you don’t have to be Nostradamus to have seen it coming.

Last year the town of Edgartown implemented a “Wastewater Department Bedroom Regulation” that stated simply (?) will limit the number of bedrooms as follows: “Existing and future lots shall be allowed four (4) bedrooms for the first ten thousand (10,000) square feet of lot area.” The regulation goes on to outline guidelines for additional bedrooms, but I think you get the idea.

Our aquifer is essentially one large interconnected underground lake that supplies the entire Island and our numerous tidal ponds are very fragile. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out we’re at a tipping point. All you have to do during the summer when driving along Island byways and passing any number of these ponds is hang your head out the window of your car and sniff the air. Every year the BOH closes certain ponds at one point during the summer for recorded high fecal levels. That’s scary.

Read this article and keep in mind that buying land is going to require more than just a promise and assumption that you can build what you want on the land, even if the current zoning bylaws say you can. Rules are changing every day and I bet you’re going to see a great many lots in the Ocean Heights area coming on the market at fire sale prices, or being purchased by one buyer, combined, engineered and offered for sale anew at premium prices. I know of one group of lots in that area right now, not in MLS, available for $750,000.

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