Kennedy Aide Says Land Bill To Control Cape-Island Costs

A Federal land use bill sponsored by Senator Edward M. Kennedy '54 (D-Mass.) would help alleviate soaring housing costs and ecological hazards on Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, a former Kennedy legislative aid said at Lowell Lecture Hall last night.

"The bill is a result of the conception that the islands were in danger of becoming like Cape Cod, and it can help relieve tension by having the government move in and control housing," K. Dun Gifford '60 said.

The proposed legislation divides the islands into three categories. No new construction would be allowed on "forever wild" areas such as dunes, marshes and scenic uplands. An Island Trust Committee, for which Gifford is a spokesman, would oversee the selling of such land, once the present owners no longer want to retain it, Gifford said.

More Zoning Control

Buildings on "town-planned lands" would be subject to greater local zoning control and zoning requirements would be raised on "scenic preservation land" allowed for public sale, Gifford added.

The bill proposes limited access to Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. "If you spent money to preserve the land and didn't restrict access, the money would be wasted," Gifford said.

"I think the opposition is losing, and this represents a trend toward increased restriction on land use," he added.

Escalation of land prices and ecological abuse resulting from overcrowding motivated the bill, and effective supply control will cut down prices and make the area a better place to live, Gifford said.

"As Americans of Cambridge I think that we're a people with a capacity for vast growth in our ability to comprehend that things can be better than they have been," he said.

Gifford's speech was the second in a series of Shady Hill School lectures.