An Unlikely Marriage of Land Conservation and Development
The Birth of the Land Banks on Nantucket and the Vineyard

By Pat Waring, Times of The Island, Summer/Fall 2001

There was a time when visitors traveled to Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket for the serenity, the rural atmosphere, the unspoiled natural beauty, and the opportunity to freely enjoy it all. Since those halcyon days, both islands have begun in recent decades to gain a less-than-welcome celebrity status. Upscale prices, newsworthy visitors, and a high demand for dwindling space have started changing the islands from the peaceful country and beach destinations of years ago.

Shocked to attention by unwanted changes and fears of a paved future, island residents took action, creating innovative public agencies dedicated to conservation. The Nantucket Islands Land Bank, the first such organization in the nation, soon spawned not only the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank, but also three others in the Northeast and one in the Pacific Northwest’s San Juan Islands.

After long political wrangling, Cape Cod recently adopted a form of the land-bank model. “It was really in response to the rate of development on the island and the changes in the landscape, the large houses on the countryside,” explained Eric Savetsky, director of Nantucket’s land bank.

Both islands, though differing in personality, experience similar conflicts as development pressures mount, threatening to devour the meadows, moors, ponds, and woodlands that make them both so charming and unique. While private conservation over the years has done its share, the advent of the land banks in the 1980s made for a quantum leap in the battle to conserve open space.

Created by acts of the state legislature, governed by elected local commissioners, and administered by professional staff, the agencies are uniquely able to purchase land thanks to a surcharge on real-estate transactions. This cash flow keeps the organizations in good stead when it comes to acquisitions, an advantage over private groups whose budgets rely on individual contributions, fund-raising, or grants.

Since its creation in 1984, Nantucket’s land bank has made the most of its mandate, purchasing 8 percent of the island’s total area—some 2,134 acres of open land. The Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank began in 1986, using the Nantucket organization as a model. Today, the organization owns or otherwise controls 1,779 acres of widely varied property—2.8 percent of the island.

Unlike private conservation groups, the land banks regard public access and passive recreation as high-priority goals. Some groups buy tracts primarily to protect flora and fauna from desecration or to keep an attractive vista unsullied, setting them off limits to visitors. But the land banks, especially on Martha’s Vineyard, welcome and accommodate visitors, while keeping a close eye on preservation and attempting to balance both values.

The fruits of this effort are visible all across both islands. They are seen in trail-laced woodlands, serene pondside paths, lush roadside meadows, and hilly shorefront parcels. On Martha’s Vineyard, where public beaches are at a premium, the land bank has secured several key access points from the south and north shore to Chappaquiddick Island.

Despite similarities in their goals and organization, the two land banks have differences largely stemming from a divergence between the two islands. Martha’s Vineyard, with its six separate towns and larger size—it is twice as big as Nantucket—calls for a more complex land-bank structure than does its one-town sister island. While most beaches are open to the public on Nantucket, the majority of Vineyard shorefront is off limits, making competition for any beachfront parcel intense and often bitter whether the stakes are purchase or simply a swim. “There are so many public beach access points on Nantucket [that] there is no one point that has pressure,” observed MVLB Commis-sioner Pam Goff.

Nantucket, the smaller island, has a dwindling amount of undeveloped land available, challenging both conservation agencies and private would-be buyers. But on Martha’s Vineyard there are still large, open parcels that would fit into the land- bank program.

Both land banks are governed by elected commissions, five members on Nantucket, seven on Martha’s Vineyard, including the state secretary of environmental affairs or his designee. Each Vineyard town has an appointed town advisory board, acting in an advisory capacity and holding veto power. The MVLB has three full-time and one part-time administrative staff members, five involved with land planning and management, and several summer property attendants. The staff at the Nantucket Land Bank includes two administrative and two property-related positions, adding a part-time office assistant and a full-time field worker in summer.


Maybe in My Backyard

The land banks are busy places. Potential acquisitions are constantly in the air, juggled like so many brightly colored balls. Every now and again one rises as a strong possibility and active negotiations get under way. With its intricate governance and a check-and-balance relationship between the central commission and the town advisory boards, acquiring and opening up a property on Martha’s Vineyard is a dance of many clearly defined steps.

The approval stages required at the MVLB are numerous and complicated. Although weekly meetings are open, large segments of the transaction are conducted in executive session since it involves purchase negotiations. In order to purchase a tract of land, both the commission and the local advisory board in the town where the land is located must be in accord. The same is true for the management plan, a document detailing features of the land, intended use, improvement plans, and regulations. New properties are closed for study and development of the management plan. Management plans need more than local endorsement to pass. The state secretary of environmental affairs must approve the plan before it is final.

While the land bank on Nantucket welcomes suggestions from the public at any time, the MVLB actively solicits it. Management plans go through formal public review. Town advisory boards hold open meetings to give residents a chance to suggest properties for a wish list.

The MVLB keeps neighbors in the loop during the management-plan period, contacting those with abutting property when purchase is made. Establishing friendly re-lations with new neighbors can be a challenge despite the land bank’s most sincere efforts. Sources on both islands commented that residents are usually apprehensive about the idea of a land bank as their neighbor, potentially bringing the entire general public along as a guest. But after the deal is made and the property open, most neighbors come to realize it’s not at all bad to share your backyard with the land bank.

The process is simpler on Nantucket, where only the five commissioners need agree to acquire a property. And once the purchase is consummated, according to Savetsky, it often doesn’t take a lot of time or effort to prepare a new property for opening. Also, a formal management plan is not required. In many cases, he says, it is obvious what the appropriate use will be. Although land-bank staff sometimes mow fields, clear parking areas, or lay a boardwalk over a wetland, there are generally fewer and less extensive improvements than on Martha’s Vineyard properties.


An Island Conservation Scheme

William Klein, former Nantucket town planner, gets the credit for coming up with the innovative concept of a land bank supported by a property transfer tax. Some-times lightheartedly referred to as “the Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup solution,” the model inextricably joined conservation and development. The more real estate money changed hands, the more dollars worth of property could be protected.

It was the late 1970s and, with only a small portion of Nantucket’s land conserved and development heating up, Klein saw the future of a changed Nantucket all too clearly. He developed a proposal, gathered supporters, and after long discussions and many hearings, gained acceptance for this conservation scheme that ironically would rely on development for its sustenance. The state legislature endorsed the plan in 1983 and Nantucket residents approved the land bank proposal by a vote of 446 to 1 at its annual town meeting.

Across Nantucket Sound, Martha’s Vineyard was experiencing the same development pressures and fears about the island’s shrinking open space. MVLB director James Lengyel writes, “Farming declined, centuries-old pastures and fields were left to knot into vines and shrubs. The freedom to roam was curtailed as fences were erected across trails, beaches were gated off and hunting was restricted.”

Taking Nantucket’s fledgling organization as a model, a Vineyard study committee set to work, devising a format that would fit the larger island with its six separate and independent-minded towns. The committee, appointed by the Dukes County Commissioners, enlisted the aid of Richard Emmet of the Conservation Law Foundation. State legislation was enacted in 1985 and voters adopted the Vineyard land bank proposal at all six annual town meetings in the spring of 1986.


Filling Deep Pockets

Setting a property-transfer tax—a 2 percent fee on all real-estate transactions—proved to be a practical and generally palatable way to bring in funds. Savetsky says that buyers of large and expensive property “don’t seem to blink an eye at paying the transfer fee.” But, he notes, it might not be so easy for less affluent families buying a smaller home. Taking this discrepancy into account, both organizations set exemptions of $100,000 of the purchase price for first-time homebuyers. Due to soaring property costs, the Nantucket Land Bank is seeking to raise its exemption to $200,000. The measure has been approved locally but is awaiting action by the state legislature.

Revenue statistics give telling insight into one big difference between the two islands. While Nantucket has far fewer real-estate transactions than Martha’s Vineyard, the NLB’s revenues are higher because land costs so much more. Since 1987 the Vineyard’s total revenue was only 74 percent of Nantucket’s on average.

Although the transfer fee provides a steady income stream, it is not entirely predictable, ebbing and flowing with market changes. This, and the need to have ready cash for large deals, twice motivated the MVLB to make bond issues. Lengyel says there are no immediate plans for a third bond issue because there are no large purchases close to fruition, but there will likely be another in the future. The organization also invested funds in stocks and bonds during the mid-1990s, which proved a successful strategy for beating inflation. The original principal was removed from the market, while the earnings remain invested.

On Nantucket, in an effort to increase revenues as the specter of development loomed more menacingly, voters in 1997 approved an increase in the transfer tax from 2 to 4 percent. The measure remains stalled at the state level. According to Lengyel, the MVLB is grateful for the 2 percent fee and has not seen fit to seek an increase.

Also in 1997, Nantucket residents passed by a 54 percent majority a $25 million bond issue to help the land bank with its acquisitions—evidence of Nan-tucketers’ support of the land bank and conservation.


A is for Alone

Visitors express delight at having such a variety of outdoor opportunities available to them. Added to the property conserved by other groups, the land bank holdings make for a rich spectrum. Almost every type of island terrain, from woods and meadows to ponds and ocean beaches, can be visited. Year-rounders have their own favorites. Lengyel named Wompesket Preserve as his top choice. “It is riotous with birds,” he says, describing the beautiful specimen trees that surround the grassy meadow. “You get there and you feel Alone with a capital A. That’s my goal in conservation work—to find places where you can feel Capital-A Alone.”

Most residents of both islands breathe sighs of relief when a significant property is purchased by their land bank. Savetsky gets calls from locals who see signs of activity on undeveloped parcels and wonder. “People are really happy that the red tape and stakes and surveyor’s markers are not meaning there is going to be a lot of new homes in a visible location,” he says. “When I tell them there will be no development, people are ecstatic.”

But not everyone is dancing in the streets when a new island property is preserved forever. As more and more of each island is purchased by these two land banks, less and less land is then left available for badly needed affordable housing. Most Nantucket and Martha’s Vineyard developers agree that a balance of conservation and development is healthy for the islands. They also agree that taking developable land out of the house construction equation translates into higher property values around the islands.

There probably isn’t a developer or potential first-time homeowner on the Vineyard or Nantucket who hasn’t cast a wistful eye over the vast, protected tracts of upland and thought about the houses they could have built—and sold—if they’d had right of first refusal over the island conservation groups. On Nantucket, the die is pretty much cast, with only one or two large parcels up for grabs. But on Martha’s Vineyard, there is still plenty to squabble over.


Public Access is Key

The MVLB’s unwavering dedication to public access is seen both in the fact that virtually all its lands are open and in the extensive plans made for public use of the properties. Nantucket owns several parcels that are closed to the public. The ecosystem of a property dictates how it will be used on Nantucket, says Savetsky. For example, a wetland is an inappropriate hiking spot. But when parts of a property are not suitable for public use, the MVLB takes a different approach. “We create a trail system that skirts the area,” says Lengyel. “We believe that with a proper balance of sense and science you can integrate public use and protection of land.”
Although all properties that the MVLB owns outright offer public access, in several cases, such as the Allen Farm fields with their sweeping view of the Atlantic, the agency purchases only development rights. Through conservation or agricultural pres-ervation restrictions, such parcels are maintained as farmland or scenic vistas while remaining in private ownership at a cost to the land bank far lower than purchase.

Establishing a network of trails all across the island is a top goal for the MVLB. At this writing, the NLB maintains two or three trails, Savetsky says, while the MVLB’s system comprises 33 miles and gets longer all the time. “My goal is to be able to walk crosswise and back and forth across the island without going on the pavement,” says Goff, smiling at her vision. “If a property sits in the path of a trail, it becomes a high priority,” Lengyel says. “To us, they’re building blocks in the cross-island trail.”

The agency holds an annual cross-island hike every June marking National Trails Day, which draws several dozen stalwarts. Routes differ each year, but stick primarily to land bank and other conservation property, showing that it can be done.

Efforts are well under way to make at least some properties accessible to disabled visitors. On Martha’s Vineyard, where universal access is mandated by the state through the management plan process, a land-bank committee is working with a group of advocates for the disabled on the project.

Both land-banks maintain cordial relations with other conservation groups. Savetsky says his agency regularly meets with the Nantucket Conservation Foundation, the Nantucket Land Council, and others, often trading tips or even property. On Martha’s Vineyard, after tensions surfaced among the organizations some years ago, the land bank and several private groups formed the Martha’s Vineyard Conservation Partnership to provide mutual support and keep communications open. Member organizations include Vineyard Conservation Society, the Sheriff’s Meadow Foundation, the Nature Conser-vancy, and the Trustees of Reservations.


All is Not Lost

And what of the future? Time is closing in on Nantucket and Savetsky says most of the remaining parcels are small. “What’s out there has really changed,” he says. Today, the two land banks, despite satisfying records of acquisition, must stay vigilant for new opportunities.
At the same time, questions begin to rise about what future role these organizations will play. There will come a time, at least theoretically, when all open space will be conserved, developed, or otherwise spoken for, and acquisition will not be a viable mission. Even now, the NLB is beginning to rethink its job, realizing that land management and maintenance will be the direction of the future. But Martha’s Vineyard has years to go. “There is no dearth of opportunities at the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank,” says Lengyel with a bright smile. “We’re working on dozens and dozens of really exciting and sizable properties.”

Lengyel attributes the difference to the fact that the Nantucket Conservation Foundation began protecting land in 1965, acquiring many major tracts. And the relative size of the two islands makes a difference too, he adds. Even with the rigorous efforts of both the MVLB and other Vineyard conservation groups, the proportion of conserved land on that island does not match Nantucket’s. “Nantucket is so filled with conservation land that voters know whenever they want a beautiful walk they have so much to choose from,” says Lengyel. “We do not have that circumstance here.”

After being in the job 12 years, Lengyel says he enjoys it thoroughly and is thrilled to see a system of high-priority properties and trail linkages falling into place. The work of the land banks demonstrates that it is possible to make progress towards the sometimes elusive goal of preservation.

On the white walls of the MVLB’s Edgartown offices hang photographs and paintings. At first glance they could be any attractive New England landscapes, but a closer look reveals that each one shows a land-bank property—trees in autumn color, sculpted dunes, a quiet pond. More than words and statistics, these pictures are proof-positive that the landscape is being conserved, that all is not lost.


Pat Waring is a freelance writer living on Martha’s Vineyard.

The properties owned by the land banks on both islands are beautiful, widely varied, and yet far too numerous to be listed here. So, to find all of the land owned by these two nonprofits, contact the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank at 167 Main Street, Edgartown, 508/627-7141 and the Nantucket Land Bank at 22 Broad Street, Nantucket, 508/228-7240.




Copyright 2001, Times of The Island, Reprinted with permission.