Maps Vinbus

[Suanne Forte]

TheMartha's Vineyard Housing Needs Assessment has been thoroughly updated for 2024, providing a detailed analysis of the Island's housing needs, along with recommendations for the years ahead. Since 2020, when the HNA was last updated, signficant shifts in demographic, economic, and housing trends have occurred, indicating a need to revisit local and regional housing agendas.

To help shed light on recent economic and municipal finance trends on the Island, the MVC has developed a series of data reports based on local, state and federal sources. The reports draw largely from the 2023 Martha's Vineyard Statistical Profile, with updated and additional data, including a local business inventory for each town. As with the Statistical Profile, these reports are meant to be used by town officials, businesses, non-profits, and members of the public for general planning purposes.

Created by MVC Energy Planner Kate Warner, Getting to 100% Renewable highlights key steps to address the Island's goal of transitioning to renewable energy by 2040, and the Island's requirement to decarbonize by 2050. The report draws from several Island groups and resources focused on climate change mitigation, including the MVC Climate Action Task Force, Vineyard Power, the Vineyard Sustainable Energy Committee, the Vineyard Climate Action Plan, and the Island Climate Action Network.

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions and shifting to renewable sources will require a major shift in how the Island powers its buildings and vehicles, and where it gets its energy. As the report notes, "It also presents a huge opportunity to change our community for the better. By achieving 100% renewable, we can also have cleaner air, healthier people, and a more equitable and properous community for everyone."

The Potential Solutions report for the Up-Island Watershed Management Plan (aka 208 Equivalency Report) has just been released. In collaboration with RJS Development Solutions and Wright-Pierce, the MVC compiled this document to describe "...a variety of technologies and approaches for mitigating impaired waters and habitats" on Martha's Vineyard. Intended for Town board members and residents alike, the advantages and disadvantages of each option are explained.

As administrator of our regional ArcGIS OnLine cloud space, the MVC has updated the site's homepage. Visitors to the site, including town employees and the general public, should have an easier time finding the interactive maps they are looking for.

The MVC has developed a series of booklets to help Island towns as they adapt to the impacts of climate change. The booklets contain the latest information and resources for the Island, and were funded in part through the Massachusetts Municipal Vulnerability Preparedness grant program. Click on the links below to read or download:

The DRI Checklist is a document outlining the standards and criteria specifying the types of development which, because of their magnitude or the magnitude of their effect on the surrounding environment, are likely to present development issues significant to more than one municipality of the island of Martha's Vineyard, and therefore are considered to potentially be Developments of Regional Impact. The Checklist is required to be updated every two years by State mandate.

After reviewing the recently revised and approved Checklist 14 with our local building inspectors, they recommended that we clarify Section 8.1 regarding the demolition of historic structures. The Demolition Policy has also been revised to reflect these changes.

A public hearing regarding the changes to the DRI Checklist and the Demolition Policy was held on April 8, 2021, and continued to May 13, and May 20. After the changes were adopted by the MVC, the document was sent to the State for approval. The State approved the revised Checklist on November 23, 2021 and the document went into effect on December 1, 2021.

To aid in identifying structures that may be more than 100 years old, the MVC has assembled the Historic Inventory Dashboard. You can search for a property and view info for its buildings from the Town Assessing Dept, Mass Historical Commission's MACRIS database, and local historic committee's reconnaissance surveys.

The MVC Energy Policy Committee has drafted a new Energy Policy for Developments of Regional Impact (DRIs), which will replace the current Energy and Environmental Building Policy from 2008. The new policy aims to 1) reduce or eliminate the consumption of fossil fuels, and the emission of greenhouse gases, associated with DRIs, 2) maximize the energy efficiency of buildings, parking lots, and other structures reviewed as DRIs, and 3) improve energy resilience on the Island. The Committe is in the process of collecting feedback from Town Boards and other stakeholders, and expects to present a final version to the MVC in January. Questions and comments may be sent to Alex Elvin.

Healthy Aging Martha's Vineyard (HAMV) received survey responses from nearly 2,500 respondents comprising the older adult community across the island. The survey was released in 2020 and generated significant interest across all six towns. The project aims in large part to help Island towns and organizations document their annual spending, and to generate wider conversations and planning surrounding the topic of healthy aging. A short summary of results can be found, here. The findings from all 68 questions are available as well. For specific questions, please contact HAMV Executive Director, Cindra Trish: [email protected] or MVC Special Projects Planner, Dan Doyle: [email protected]

The MVC, in partnership with Healthy Aging Martha's Vineyard, has completed an extensive survey and analysis of the elder-service network on the Island. The project aims in large part to help Island towns and organizations document their annual spending, and to generate wider conversations and planning surrounding the topic of healthy aging.

The MVC DRI Affordable Housing Policy Subcommittee spent almost ten months revising and updating the Affordable Housing Policy, which was written in 1998, so that it would better respond to the Island's housing needs and the housing impacts of DRI projects. The updated policy went into effect on July 12, 2019 and can be found under DRI Documents.

Title of Policy/Scope of Housing Mitigation: The term "Affordable Housing" targets those with incomes up to 80% AMI (Area Median Income); the Commission's practice, reflecting recent studies, has recognized the need to provide housing for higher levels of income as well. In acknowledgment of this practice, which the Commission continues to believe is appropriate for the Island, the policy title was changed from "Affordable Housing Policy" to simply "Housing Policy," and it expressly covers housing for those with incomes from 81% to 150% AMI (broadly understood as "Community Housing").

Mitigation Options: Like the previous policy, DRI applicants can offer either land, housing or monetary mitigation, but the new policy has a stated preference for lots and/or dwelling units instead of monetary mitigation.

Commerical and Mixed-Use Developments: The updated policy establishes a new formula where monetary mitigation is the product of new square footage, multiplied by a base rate of $8.00, and an industry intensity code. There are incentives to provide actual housing units, as opposed to monetary mitgation.

The Martha's Vineyard Commission has been working with the Towns and other agencies to provide information regarding the new Legislation Chapter 337 Short Term Rental Tax. On December 28, 2018, the Legislation was signed into law by Governor Charlie Baker. The Legislation subjects short term rental properties to the Room Occupancy Excise, G.L. c. 646 for hotels, motel, and inns. The new law imposes state and local option excises on short term rentals that are rented for more than 14 days in a calendar year, starting July 1, 2019 for which a rental contract was entered into on or after January 1, 2019. All short term rental operators are required to register with the Massachusetts Department of Revenue (MA DOR).

Of the 351 municipalities in Massachusetts, there are 175 communities that collect Room Occupancy Taxes. The Room Ocuppancy Tax is spilt in two: State Tax Rate at 5.7 % and Local Option Tax Rate up to 6%. All Local Option Revenues go directly to a Town's General Fund. In 2018, Martha's Vineyard had 1,216 hotel and inn rooms which generated a total of $1,969,004 in revenue (local receipts) for five Island Towns.

Join the MVC on Zoom on Thursday May 11, 2023 at 6:30pm and learn about the MVC's Housing Action Task Force. This is an island-wide effort to engage the entire commuinty to work together in pursuit of housing solutions. All are welcome.

Through field research & computer modeling conducted by the Center for Coastal Studies and the School for the Environment at UMass Boston, 700 STP locations have been identified across MV. Understanding STPs is a critical regional climate adaptation planning tool.

The 2nd year of this project will focus on integrating these data with a National Weather Service website so the data may be accessible to emergency managers for real-time water level forcasting to aid emergency response planning.

The MVC is pleased to announce our new online GIS Data Hub. This site can be used by anyone and everyone to explore our collection of digital spatial data for Dukes County. Datasets include property boundaries, zoning, watersheds, points of interest, etc. The data can be viewed on a map &/or table and are available for download.

The counters have the ability to breakout the traffic counts by speed groups and by the hour. The counters can also group volumes based on four different vehicle length classes allowing for a better understanding of truck traffic patterns. If used strategically, this will help inform Pavement Management Plans and fiscal planning for Town Highway Departments and MassDOT.

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