CommunityScale is working with the Martha’s Vineyard Commission and MassHousing on an analysis of town-owned parcels across the island to identify opportunities for housing development. We’re classifying all town-owned parcels by the development opportunity they represent, the density and housing types they could support, and the possible interventions needed to make a project feasible. Many of these sites are smaller than the minimum lot size required by underlying zoning. Many lack utility infrastructure, while others are limited by watershed and wellhead restrictions or flood hazard concerns.
To illustrate various levers of cost and density, we are developing case studies for different site and development types. Case studies may illustrate opportunities for adjacent parcel mergers, or undersized homesite clusters with potential for shared infrastructure.
Seasonal Communities
All communities on Martha’s Vineyard are designated Seasonal Communities. Massachusetts’ Seasonal Communities designation framework, created as part of the Affordable Homes Act in 2024, is designed to recognize Massachusetts communities that experience substantial variation in seasonal employment and to create distinctive tools to address their unique housing needs. Some of the tools available to designated Seasonal Communities support development of tiny homes and residential development on undersized lots. Our parcel analysis with MVC intends to identify these undersized town-owned parcels and demonstrate the potential that Seasonal Communities zoning could unlock for small-scale, context-appropriate housing development on sites previously considered undevelopable.
In addition to highlighting the island’s best town-owned sites for housing development, we’ll also identify sites better suited for land conservation.
We’ve met with Town staff and volunteers to present our approach and hear about recent history, previous research, and plans associated with town-owned sites in Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury, and West Tisbury. At the end of the project, we’ll deliver a GIS dataset and reports to highlight each town’s opportunities and necessary intervention pathways.
