The Martha’s Vineyard Commission is set to decide early next month on a project to restore part of the crumbling coastal bank along the North Bluff in Oak Bluffs.

The long-planned project has grown controversial in recent weeks and came in front of the commission for review as a development of regional impact.

A public hearing opened last week and closed last night. The MVC plans to deliberate and vote on the plan on Jan. 7.

Funded by $5.6 million in state grants, the project aims to replace an old concrete seawall to shore up the bank which has been severely undermined by storms and erosion. A walkway would be built atop the bank running from the harbor parking lot to the Steamship Authority pier. A companion project still in the permitting phase involves renourishing the sliver of beach that remains with many tons of sand.

One point of controversy is the plan to use corrugated sheet metal instead of concrete for a new barrier against the coastal bank.

At the second public hearing Thursday, town officials for and against the project squared off for a final time.

Town administrator Bob Whritenour said it is unlikely the town will get an extension past June 30, when $5.6 million worth of state grants will expire if the project is not substantially complete. He said if the commission issues a favorable decision early in January, he is confident the contractor can get the job done, but with little time to spare. He emphasized that the need for the project is critical.

“The implication of not protecting the roadway and the adjacent structure is a catastrophic scenario for our community,” Mr. Whritenour said. “If that seawall collapses and it endangers that road and existing structures, that is a situation that simply can’t be allowed to happen.”

But planning board chairman Brian Packish, who has been an outspoken critic, had another view.

“If you go to the other side of the steamship pier, the same exact conditions exist, and we’re not hearing the world is going to end, and we’re going to lose Ocean Park, and there’s going to be no fireworks next year,” he said. “If I close my eyes I feel like I can hear Chicken Little running from the North Bluff to town hall talking about the wall is falling, the wall is falling.”

Meanwhile, the town engineer who is heading the project came under heat from commissioners for the quality of his drawings. At the public hearing last week commissioners had asked Carlos Pena of CLE Engineering to come back with better drawings that show the project more clearly.

On Thursday this week commissioner Linda Sibley criticized the accuracy and perspective of the artists renderings provided to the commission.

“It’s clear the issue here for many people is aesthetics,” Mrs. Sibley said. “I don’t think this is a useful rendering. If you don’t come up with anything else, I will have to assume that it’s going to uglier than that.”

In the end the hearing was closed and Jan. 7 set for deliberations and a possible vote. The commission land use planning committee will meet on Jan. 4 to review the project and make recommendations to the full commission.