Impacts of Large Homes on Environment and Community Explored at Film Screening

The surf is what first brought filmmaker Thomas Bena to Chilmark, on Martha’s Vineyard. He rented for years, relocating every year when rents rose with the temperatures, a right of passage for many who move to resort towns.

The surfer learned to wield a hammer and began banging nails as a carpenter during a housing boom on the island and was able to pay off all his debt in short order.

Quiet time on a ladder lent itself to philosophizing: “Why does anyone need a 20,000-square-foot house?” he and his coworkers often wondered. In his mind, Martha’s Vineyard, which he had grown to love, was losing sight of its sense of place.

Eventually Bena decided to film a documentary exposing the rash of McMansions. Where once small cottages stood, surrounded by native trees and grasses, rose a new crop of super-sized homes, rendering the landscape unrecognizable.

“They sort of see they’re fouling their own nest but don’t know how to stop it,” said one resident when speaking of developers. “They don’t see it until it’s too late.”

Jaine Mehring and Esperanza León have seen it and decided to do something about it by forming the community engagement groups Build.In.Kind/East Hampton and Wainscott Heritage Project, respectively.

The two East Hampton women joined forces to present Bena’s film, “One Big Home,” at LTV Studios in Wainscott this month. “I watched the film in 2020 and reached out to the filmmaker, Thomas Bena, who has been a great support and guide,” Mehring said at the screening.

“He gave a lot of years of his life to this film, which is reflected in Bena’s ever-changing hair styles,” she said. As she joked, unbeknown to her, Bena popped up on a large screen behind her. “We started filming in 2004,” he said. “It was finished in 2012 and released in 2016.”

The film has been making the rounds ever since and has not lost its importance. “The film tells a universal story that is still very relevant and used as a catalyst for the important conversations that can lead to thoughtful zoning changes,” he said after the screening.

It felt timely to present the film given the proliferation of residential construction that consistently seeks to go to the maximum regarding zoning code limitations and setbacks.

“One Big Home” relies on aerial photography to show the destruction a big home can have on the environment. Here, in the Hamptons, we see it in our faces every day, but Mehring has made it her mission to bring balance back to development in East Hampton.

Her goal is to have a scale and scope for building and development that is kinder, gentler, with a more positive effect on the environment, as well as in keeping with the rural and historical character of the town.

“My hope is all East Hampton building projects will be viewed not just through the narrowest lens of individual wants, but also from a broader perspective of overall impact on the land and community,” she said in one letter to the town.

“Martha’s Vineyard and East Hampton are similar geographically in that they are isolated coastal communities, and economies that are in large part defined by second homes and seasonal resort-area dynamics,” León said.

“Obama’s on the island,” Bena says in one of the opening scenes.

The former president’s 7,000-square-feet home, with seven bedrooms and nine baths, sits on 30 private waterfront acres overlooking Edgartown Great Pond between Slough Cove and Turkeyland Cove where a barrier beach breaks the Atlantic’s strong surf.

For a little history, it was first listed for sale in 2015 for $22.5 million. When Barack and Michelle Obama purchased it for $11.75 million in December 2019, it was listed at $14.85 million.

Not only did he get a great buy, but the timing was perfect, right before COVID broke and everyone who lived in a city ran to the country to buy a home. On the downside, if the climate czars are right, his home could be underwater soon.

Without the camera going there, Bena zoomed in on the fact that the indulgences of a respected world leader might be a bit hypocritical. This is the family’s third big home, not to mention the private jets used to get from one to the other.

Then again, people in power aren’t known to set great examples. And let’s face it, who wouldn’t want to live in Obama’s house?

“Why does it offend you?” another Martha’s Vineyard resident, former television journalist Mike Wallace, asked Bena, turning the tables on the green filmmaker. “Success is measured by money.”

Still, Bena couldn’t shake the angry mood that the wastefulness all around him created.

“Empty houses all winter feels wrong to me,” he said in the film. As he and others tried to pay attention to the sense of place, he surmised new arrivals didn’t have the time to do the same and that led to a ruptured community.

Doug Liman, who directed the “Bourne Identity” movie, moved to Martha’s Vineyard from the Hamptons. “For me, the Hamptons got ruined,” he told the camera, in front of his 300-year-old house.

When Liman moved in, his neighbor came over to say something like, “Hey, I hope you’re not going to throw pesticides on your lawn.” While some might have told the woman to mind her own business, he accepted the challenge, grateful that someone cared enough to teach him the way of the land.

“That’s what community is about,” he said. “We’re not living behind tall hedges.”

It was funny to hear Liman say, “I have the world’s largest pool right there,” pointing toward the ocean.

“If this gets ruined,” he said, unable to finish the sentence, shaking his head “no.”

To put it in perspective, the average size of a home in 1950 was 983 square feet. Today, in East Hampton, the size of a home is capped at 20,000 square feet.

“This isn’t about battling against things like property rights or profit motive. Instead, it is about striving for the rebalancing of individual rights and wants with broader interests, values, needs and rights of the community,” Mehring said. “These principles do not undermine a robust economy in East Hampton. In actuality, they will enhance and sustain commercial activity and property values long term.”

In the end, the Chilmark community voted to make changes in their zoning bylaws to restrict the size of a new build to 3,500 square feet.

So far, no lawsuits have arisen on Martha’s Vineyard. The builders and developers are not complaining. Property values are going up, and the town isn’t moaning about the lack of tax revenue.

“It takes a tremendous amount of time to learn the town code, follow all the residential and commercial building/development trends, watch and engage with all the Town Board meetings, as well as the Zoning Board, Architectural Review Board and Planning Board,” Mehring said.

From the looks of it, Mehring and León are doing a pretty good job. In an October 4 letter to the East Hampton Town Board, she offered five direct requests, or action steps the board can take in curtailing big homes.

“The difference between Chilmark and East Hampton is that they had to hold a public referendum, whereas in East Hampton the Town Board can vote to change the legislation,” León said. “This would include public hearings, of course, but ultimately the vote involves five individuals.”

The women urge people to speak up, directly to the Town Board. “They need to know that the community at large really cares,” Mehring said. “Only then will our priority become their priority.”