Attorneys for the Oak Bluffs resident who illegally built a three-story garage along the North Bluff three years ago have sued the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.

Attorneys for Joseph G. Moujabber filed a complaint in Dukes County Superior Court on Nov. 16 challenging the commission’s unanimous decision last month to review the controversial garage project — dubbed Garage Mahal by some critics — as a development of regional impact (DRI).

The commission agreed to review the project after Oak Bluffs selectmen sent the project to the commission as a discretionary referral. Commissioners agreed that because the three-story building potentially affected views from one of the main gateways to the Island, it warranted a full DRI review.

But in their legal challenge attorneys Michael Vhay and Matthew Iverson claim the commission exceeded their authority and lacked the jurisdiction to accept the selectmen’s referral. The legal challenge also claims the commission’s decision was unsupported by the evidence presented because the addition will not impact either the town or the interests of neighbors.

The challenge is the latest chapter in a battle over a garage that now dates back over four years.

In November 2003, Mr. Moujabber received a town building permit to replace an existing 200-square-foot garage on his Sea View avenue extension property. The proposed cost of the replacement was $22,000, but less than six months later, the project grew into a three-story building with multiple balconies, sliding glass doors and a roof deck. The new structure sparked heated opposition throughout the neighborhood.

Under pressure from town officials and neighbors, building inspector Richard Mavro, who later resigned on disability, revoked the building permit for the garage in May 2004, a decision the zoning board of appeals upheld later that summer.

Mr. Moujabber since has filed several lawsuits against the town. The first — an appeal of the revocation order — was resolved last February, when both sides agreed to a superior court judgment that the zoning board and building inspector were correct in revoking the building permit for the structure.

A decision by a supreme court judge in August annulled the demolition order for the building, and disputed claims the structure blocked views of the ocean. But in that same decision, the Hon. Richard T. Moses ordered a new review by the Copeland District Review Board.

The judge also affirmed the Copeland review board’s authority to trump zoning bylaws; but also found that the review board did not provide specific feedback when they voted to deny the plans, and did not work with Mr. Moujabber to find some kind of a compromise.

Attorneys for Mr. Moujabber appealed that decision, which was followed by counter-claims from both the town and neighbors. Immersed in this legal quagmire, selectmen in September referred the project to the commission in hopes the regional planning agency might reach the compromise described by Judge Moses.

Kerry Scott, chairman of the selectmen and a member of the Copeland review board, said yesterday she had hoped the problems with the Moujabber project could have been resolved by the commission without further legal challenges.

“The tragedy is that we are moving away from a resolution instead of closer to one,” Ms. Scott said.