Big Houses, Small Island

They are the guzzlers of the built environment, and like sport utility vehicles, McMansions have become an object of derision in many circles in an age of heightened consciousness about wasteful consumption of finite resources. Much as big cars guzzle gas, oversized houses gulp electricity from an overloaded grid, block scenic vistas and occupy valuable coastal wetlands, sometimes to ruinous effect.

The Martha’s Vineyard Commission is debating for a second time this year the tricky question of whether it should regulate the megamansions that have proliferated on the Vineyard in the last decade by adding a square footage trigger to its so-called development of regional impact checklist. The list determines what building projects are sent to the commission for a super review by the regional planning body vested with extraordinary powers to regulate development on the Island. Ordinarily, projects that go to the commission for review are large subdivisions of land, residential housing developments, including affordable housing developments, commercial and industrial buildings.

In its role as an advocate for environmental protection, the Vineyard Conservation Society has led the move to have large houses come under review by the commission. Unsurprisingly the topic is divisive. Opponents include people who earn their living in the construction business, a key segment of the Vineyard economy, who are understandably worried about creating another set of hurdles for home builders, even as some quietly question the wisdom of putting up a house as large as the local supermarket.

Large houses are not a new phenomenon on the Vineyard. Many of the houses built by whaling captains that line the waterfront in Edgartown and Vineyard Haven were gargantuan by the standards of the time and were often built right to the lot lines. At East and West Chop many shingle-style summer homes that have overlooked the Middle Ground for a century or more are large and sprawling. Large houses sit on large estates in the rural reaches up-Island as well. The Vineyard is not, as some would have it, exclusively an Island of modest cottages, even if the overall effect is not ostentatious.

Still, none can compare to the mansions that have sprung up in coastal places on the Vineyard, including in highly visible places at West Chop and on Sengekontacket Pond in Edgartown. How did the owners get away with building such places, people often ask. And it’s a very good question.

Our towns already have a variety of tools at their disposal to enforce community standards and protect the environment when it comes to home construction. Every building project undertaken in any of our six municipalities must run a gauntlet of town boards and regulations designed to enforce zoning standards, wetlands rules and other bylaws. Additional tools, like creation of districts of critical planning concern (DCPCs), are in place in all the towns and provide additional muscle.

What seems clear is that some towns have been lax in enforcing their own rules, even while the public outcry from the citizenry calling for more scrutiny of these large building projects has been heard like a shot around the Island. Why aren’t we demanding better accountability from leaders in our own communities?

The Martha’s Vineyard Commission has an important role to play in ensuring Islandwide values are protected. But before we decide we need a new layer of regulation, let’s ask ourselves what’s gone wrong with the ones we already have.