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The Martha's Vineyard Commission is the regional planning agency of Dukes County, which is made up of the six towns of Martha's Vineyard—Aquinnah, Chilmark, Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, Tisbury and West Tisbury—as well as the town of Gosnold on the Elizabeth Islands.

The Commission was created in 1974 by an act of the Massachusetts Legislature in response to what legislators viewed as a threat of unchecked development on Martha's Vineyard. The Legislature adopted the Martha's Vineyard Commission Act, which created a system of regional planning and regulation in order to protect the unique "natural, historical, ecological, scientific, [and] cultural" qualities of the Vineyard.

Primary authority under the Act is vested in the Martha's Vineyard Commission whose mission is to help carefully manage growth so that the Vineyard's unique environment, character, social fabric and sustainable economy are maintained as development takes place.

The section of our website on The Commission outlines the agency's background and mission, and explains how it is organized and who is involved.

Subsequent sections describe the Commission's two primary roles and responsibilities.

1. The MVC is responsible for regional land use Planning for all seven towns of Dukes County.

2. The MVC has special regulatory roles with respect to developments within the six towns of Martha's Vineyard, namely:

• It regulates Developments of Regional Impact (DRIs).
• It creates Districts of Critical Planning Concern (DCPCs).

The Resource Center of this website includes a wide range of documents about the Commission and the Vineyard.

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