A sharply divided Martha’s Vineyard Commission voted to approve the roundabout for the blinker intersection in Oak Bluffs last week, ending a decade-long debate over the traffic improvement project.

After a three-hour heated discussion, the roundabout was approved 7-6. Commissioner Chris Murphy, who chaired the meeting, broke the tie and cast the deciding vote.

“I am going to vote to support the Oak Bluffs selectmen and vote yes,” he said in the final minutes of the meeting. The roundabout has the support of the town selectmen and police chief.

The West Tisbury selectmen referred the project to the commission in August for review as a development of regional impact (DRI), and in the aftermath of the vote this week selectman Richard Knabel sounded off.

“With this decision, the razor-thin . . . majority of the commission has thumbed its nose at all up-Islanders who must use this gateway intersection to gain access to down-Island,” Mr. Knabel said, reading from a prepared statement at the selectmen’s meeting Wednesday. “This from a commission specifically charged with preserving the uniqueness of this special place.”

He also took aim at Mr. Murphy. “His ongoing, and unfortunate, hostility to the referral by the West Tisbury selectmen . . . has been palpable,” Mr. Knabel said.

The statement is published on the Commentary Page in today’s Gazette.

The commission is expected to vote on the written decision, its final step for approval in a DRI, next Thursday.

The project is set to go out to bid this fall and will be paid for with $1.2 million in state and federal Transportation Improvement Project money, which is funded in part by a surtax on gasoline.

The approval includes a list of conditions that address the issues of bus stops, landscaping, exterior lighting and a shared-use path designed to caution drivers, bicyclists and pedestrians about the major crossing. Final lighting and landscaping plans must be submitted before construction begins.

Commissioner Doug Sederholm moved for an additional condition to review the possible need for push-button activated flashing lights for pedestrian and bicycle crossing. That too was approved.

Planning for the roundabout began in 2001 after the Oak Bluffs selectmen hired a consultant to study the blinker intersection, and the consultant recommended the roundabout as a traffic improvement measure. Commonly known as the blinker intersection because a blinking light (red on one side, yellow on the other) was used for years to control traffic, the intersection was converted to a four-way stop in 2003. After a second study, the commission released a report recommending a roundabout in 2006.

Commissioners had their final say last Thursday night, and opinions were divided.

Leonard Jason Jr. was a leading critic of the project, noting among other things that it would disrupt Vineyard Transit Authority routes.

“Let’s take one of the best award-winning transportation units and let’s break it apart because we seem to know better because we’re worried about hard pavement,” he said. “We’re not talking about safety . . . everybody’s admitted safety isn’t even on the table. We’re talking about cars from point A to point B faster so they can sit at a stop sign further down the road longer. That’s what we’re talking about.” He continued: “This thing is an abortion, it doesn’t belong at the commission; we’re going to end up killing some bicyclists. I think we should just kill it.”

Commissioner Linda Sibley called the bus stop design a serious flaw. “The existing bus design adds a lot [of asphalt] so I really feel strongly about it,” she said. “I think that’s what makes this design really awful and if we can radically reduce it . . . I think it can be done and still have it meet the needs of public, I cannot vote for this plan with all the asphalt that’s there right now.”

Commissioner Camille Rose assailed the project as an Island misfit. “It is not in character with the rest of the Island, it has been described as an off-Island feature that’s not appropriate here. I’m not the least bit convinced this is going to be safe regardless of what the DOT experts have said,” she said. “I think that people are going to have difficulties entering from Barnes and Airport Roads, I think it’s going to cause a lot of problems. I’m not convinced that they know what they’re talking about, experts or not.”

Others took a different view.

“I find it interesting when people talk about the character of the Island in that it’s all relative to how far back you want to go,” said commissioner James Joyce. “At one point cars were out of character,” he added.

“If we can minimize the amount of hardscape while still maximizing the functionality with flow and safety of pedestrians, I think we can say we’ve achieved something by improving an intersection that has been failing for many years,” said commissioner John Breckenridge.

“The Vineyard has not reached build-out capacity . . . I think this is a net gain,” said commissioner Holly Stephenson, adding: “The reports that the state gave us have shown that a roundabout is safer than the four-way stop.”

Commissioner Douglas Sederholm said on balance the roundabout represents an improvement and will be needed in the future.

“The traffic backed up to NStar is over 100 times a year, that’s a big negative, and that’s not the kind of Island character I want to see,” he said. “So I think the way I’ve come out of this is, the roundabout is definitely needed in the tourist season. We could live without it right now, in the other eight to nine months of the year. We really don’t have to have it. But, will we be able to live without it 10 years from now?”

As the discussion went on, commissioners voted three times to extend the meeting. And there were a few dramatic moments. Clarence A. (Trip) Barnes 3rd questioned why a video he submitted had not been shown as a part of the public hearing testimony. Mr. Barnes left the meeting while commissioners agreed to watch the video that purported to demonstrate how Mr. Barnes’s trucks could not make the turn at the site of the roundabout. He returned to announce that Oak Bluffs police were ticketing illegally parked cars outside the Olde Stone building.

Mr. Jason had the last word.

“If we approve this, we’re going to live with this forever, there’s no going back. It’s not going to solve the issue of traffic on Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road, we need to do something and do it right,” he said. “This is the wrong answer to what I don’t even think is a problem.”

The roll call vote follows.

Voting in favor were Holly Stephenson, Doug Sederholm, James Joyce, Fred Hancock, Erik Hammarlund, John Breckenridge and Chris Murphy.

Voting against were Brian Smith, Camille Rose, Linda Sibley, Ned Orleans, Leonard Jason Jr. and Christina Brown.