The Great Island Debate

It is not, of course, the only topic of conversation. There is always the question of the winds for tomorrow's sailing, or the prospects confronting George McGovern, or the latest gossip about who misbehaved after too many vodkas and tonic. But sooner or later, among the gatherings of the well-to-do and fashionable on the Massachusetts resort islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket,* the talk is likely to turn into bitter arguments over this summer's No. 1 question: Should the Federal Government move in and take charge of preserving the islands?

Yes, says Henry Beetle Hough, venerable editor of the Vineyard Gazette. "The bill would give us protection at last by curbing the speculation and the development."

No, says Real Estate Dealer and Hotel Man Bob Carroll. "This is a bill to protect a few people from ever having any neighbors."

The bill that they are arguing about was introduced in the Senate by Edward Kennedy last April with a warning that "we do not have the luxury of months and months to act." Indeed the two islands, once havens of rural serenity, have already become, in their rural way, boom towns. Every summer the permanent population of 10,000 swells to a new high--50,000 now, nearly double the summer crowd of ten years ago. Over the past five years, the ferryboat traffic from the mainland has increased by almost 50%, to some 500,000 passengers a year.

The sale of land has been correspondingly frenetic. Virtually any half-acre building lot now costs at least $5,000, and three acres on Chappaquiddick recently went for a price of $125,000. Some projects on the Vineyard, where building permits are filed at the rate of one a day, would carve old farms into quarter-acre lots; others include the island's first beachfront condominiums and its first trailer camp. On Nantucket, now dotted with about 3,000 gray-shingle houses, 1,884 house lots were being planned for development this spring. Besides creating an almost suburban clutter, the projects endanger the limited local water supplies. Nantucket's Hummock Pond already is rank from sewage overflow. In the Vineyard, declares Planner Alex Fittinghoff, "once the ground water is polluted, this place is finished. There is no way we can double the summer population on this island."

To preserve the islands' still gleaming beaches, their secluded moors and meadows, the Kennedy bill would impose an unprecedented degree of federal control through the creation of the nation's first "island trust"--a sort of combination public recreation area and private preserve.

Kennedy maps, which appeared last spring without any prior warning. would divide all of the land into three categories. One, amounting to about one-fifth of the islands, would be subject to locally planned development, or, as Kennedy put it, "room for growth within limits." Another, covering about one-third of the land and including most beaches, would be declared "forever wild," to be purchased as necessary from a proposed $20 million federal fund. Most controversial, the remaining land, almost half of the islands, would be designated for "scenic preservation" --in effect a federal zoning law that would allow property owners to keep their land but not to develop it. Probable result: existing houses would soar in value, but undeveloped land would suddenly lose virtually all resale value.

To some residents, particularly those seeking refuge from the strain of urban life, the Kennedy bill seems a blessing. Author and Nantucket Home Owner David Halberstam says that the plan represents "an ecological awakening, a sense of the fragility of the islands, a recognition that what befouls one area befouls all areas."

Home Rule. But many islanders count on the summer rush to carry them through the year, for the unemployment rate soars to 15% in the winter. Some opponents, like Real Estate Man Carroll, not only bemoan the end of the building boom but warn that federal funds can hardly preserve a resort for the wealthy few. Says he: "The people of the United States aren't going to pay all this money and then not use the island." Since the Kennedy bill would make most beaches public, critics argue that this would lead to the building of new access roads, a possibility that most landowners heartily oppose.

To coordinate all the objections, a number of citizens' committees have been spending recent weeks studying problems ranging from traffic congestion to water use. Most islanders, who would not even consider zoning laws a few years ago, now agree with the Kennedy bill's far more comprehensive principles, but they want to retain as much home rule as possible.

Happily, Kennedy has encouraged precisely this kind of response. He will reintroduce his bill in the Senate later this summer together with several mollifying amendments. These would allow some owners of "scenic preservation" lands to get special permits to build houses, such as cottages for their children. Another amendment provides for separate "trust commissions" for Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. The bill also asks the Secretary of the Interior to find means of keeping the number of visitors to the islands within "reasonable" limits.

What is ultimately at stake far transcends the islands. If the bill passes, which seems likely, it will stand as a model of a new approach, a sharing of responsibility by the Government and private citizens in the preservation of increasingly crowded vacation lands.

*Among the notable inhabitants: Pop Singer James Taylor. Yale President Kingman Brewster, New York Times Columnists James Reston and Russell Baker, Writer-Cartoonist Jules Feiffer. Painter Thomas Hart Benton, Playwrights Thornton Wilder and Lillian Hellman. Actress Ruth Gordon, former TV Host Hugh Downs and ex-Defense Secretary Clark Clifford.

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