Edgartown Lighthouse on Martha’s Vineyard.
EDGARTOWN – Martha’s Vineyard continues to have issues with affordable housing and an Edgartown developer says he could solve some of those issues.
Squash Meadow Construction President Bill Potter says the problem affects many of his employees and that starter homes on the island start at about $500,000.
“Let’s construct units for half that cost where the workforce can instead of, when available, paying $1,400 a month for a garage apartment, let’s transfer that into a mortgage and have them own property,” Potter said.
Potter said multi-unit buildings could be built that would cost about $240,000 with mortgages of $1,400 a month.
“There’s one main hurdle and that is zoning bylaws,” he said. “The zoning bylaws in the various towns do not allow for this type of construction.”
Potter also believes that the island has a housing problem in general and not just a problem with affordable housing.
“There is no housing,” he said. “There is no place for people to live on the Vineyard that work here. It is at maximum capacity.”
Potter believes something needs to be done sooner rather than later and that there are a lot of people that have to commute to the island for work.
