Defying the law of negativity, an Edgartown couple secured a special permit to operate a winery out of the former Old Colony building on the West Tisbury Road following a public hearing Wednesday.

Josh and Angela Aronie, both in their thirties, plan to establish a wine production and retail space in the building, which is the site of a former car dealership but has been vacant for a number of years. They secured approval for the project at an evening hearing held by the zoning board of appeals attended by more than a dozen would-be neighbors.

Martin V. (Skip) Tomassian Jr. chairman of the Edgartown zoning board of appeals, was particularly surprised at the result.

“Before this meeting I thought they don’t have a chance,” he said, before calling a vote on a motion to approve the special permit, which was passed unanimously.

“It’s very rare that that many immediate neighbors come to a meeting and not firmly oppose a project,” said Mr. Tomassian, following the meeting.

The plan comes on the heels of the closure of Chicama Vineyards in West Tisbury last year. The difference here will be that the Aronie business would buy grape juice from off-Island, focusing on New England grapes. Using the old automobile service room, the company will produce wine using 10-15 processing vats and a lab area, producing eight to ten wines at a time. The 7,000-square-foot room will lead on to a 1,300-square-foot retail space where customers will be able to taste and buy wines.

“The most they’ll drink if they tried all five wines, would be less than a half a glass. And often they’ll spit it out too,” said Mr. Aronie, assuring the board that customers would not be over the limit walking out of the winery.

The couple plans to keep the operation on a small scale, producing between 5,000 to 5,500 crates a year. With a tentative opening date of next spring, Mr. Aronie said that though there is a lot of paperwork and organizing left to do — including securing federal bond approval — the last major hurdle was cleared Wednesday night at the hearing.

“We wanted to started something like this together but maybe a few years down the track,” said Mr. Aronie, “but when Chicama Vineyards closed last year it created a hole.”

The building, on the West Tisbury Road housed a Jeep dealership, the Vineyard’s only car dealership until 1997 when company assets where seized by the Internal Revenue Service and the dealership closed. A Showcase Isuzu car dealership opened shortly after but closed in 2002. The building then fell into disuse and had become progressively dilapidated. Several people at the meeting described it as an eyesore. Since the building had been out of commercial use for more than two years Mr. Tomassian argued that grandfathering rules did not apply to the property.

Grace Sullivan of Pinehurst Road, who provided one of the few dissenting voices at the meeting, questioned this judgment.

“Is grandfather dead and, if so, who pronounces him and when?” She said.

She was concerned about overuse of Pinehurst Road — which is already used as a shortcut for knowledgeable drivers. Use of the road will increase with truck deliveries for the winery, in a neighborhood with many elderly people and children.

“For some drivers it’s a speedway,” she said, “and it’s a narrow street that can be widened.” She added:

“The fact that the property doesn’t look good doesn’t mean it has to become a commercial property. I would prefer it be a hayfield. Failing that a park. And failing that, a residence.”

Mr. Tomassian pointed out that the building was very nearly turned over for government use as a district court and would have been if state funding had not fallen through. Most other concern was confined to the fear that the business would morph into a restaurant. Mr. Aronie, who said his experience in the restaurant business began at age 12, explained a mid-term plan to install a kitchen on the site for the stated purpose of manufacturing condiments or other foods with some association to wine drinking, and also to function as a general kitchen for private functions. Mr. Aronie sought to assure the board and those present that they were not viewing the kitchen as a back up plan.

“There will be no restaurant. We will never have a restaurant, you can record that,” said Mr. Aronie, who is co-owner of Sharky’s cantina in Oak Bluffs and Edgartown and previously of Park Corner Bistro in Oak Bluffs.

However, in light of the concerns, the couple agreed to withdraw the kitchen from the permit request, with the option to return to the board with the request in the future.

A couple who are close neighbors of Mr. and Mrs. Aronie both spoke in favor of the project.

“I said to my wife ‘There goes the playground for our grandkids,’” said Larry Beane, who lives on Pinehurst Road, “but we’ll just go across the street. I wouldn’t want it as a park in a heavy traffic area. And this isn’t a liquor store, people won’t be there doing things. Winos, as the old saying goes, don’t do those things.”

His wife, Sandra, agreed:

“There are broken windows there and kids are behind the building doing things they shouldn’t be doing all the time,” she said, “They’re a young couple who need a chance. Why care about a little noise? Who cares?”