Old land use battles were a silent backdrop last week when the Martha's Vineyard Commission had its first look at a new bank project now planned for the site of the former Nobnocket garage in Vineyard Haven.

The Dukes County Savings Bank wants to build a 15,000-square-foot complex to house bank operations, a small branch office and a day care center for bank employees. The old Nobnocket site is located off the busy State Road corridor, at the extreme western edge of the commercial strip.

"We have been searching as an institution for room to grow," said bank executive vice president Robert Wheeler at a public hearing in front of the commission on Thursday night.

The project is under review as a development of regional impact (DRI).

Held at the commission office in the Olde Stone Building in Oak Bluffs, the hearing included presentations from project architect Joanne Gosser and others, including a landscape architect, a wastewater expert and a traffic engineer.

The plan envisions a central building to house the bank's "back-of-the-house" operations, plus a small drive-through branch with an automatic teller machine. The plan also calls for building a 4,000-square-foot day care center to serve 20 children of bank employees.

At the outset Mr. Wheeler reminded commission members that the Dukes County Bank is a mutual savings bank, locally owned. A mutual savings bank has no stock and no stockholders; the depositers are the bank owners.

The central office for the bank is located in Edgartown, and there are branch offices in every Vineyard town but Aquinnah. The bank also has a trust department with an office in the North Tisbury section of West Tisbury.

Mr. Wheeler said bank leaders explored every inch of available commercial space on the Vineyard and in the end concluded that the Nobnocket site is the only really suitable site for the plan at hand.

"We came to a much-considered decision," Mr. Wheeler said. "We want to be able to meet our needs now and for the next 25 years, when we could easily be a $500 million mutual savings bank. There is no chance of outside purchase of this bank," he added.

He said the main bank office will remain in Edgartown, and the senior officers will continue to be housed there.

Mr. Wheeler said future plans include possibly moving the bank's trust department from its office in West Tisbury to the State Road location, and he also said the bank would like to have more space to offer more safe deposit boxes for its customers.

The plan describes the style for the building as "Vineyard bank shingle style," although no one could explain exactly what the phrase meant.

The Nobnocket site has been unused for many years and is overgrown with native and non-native invasive plants. A tangle of Russian olive trees and bittersweet forms a screen along State Road.

Access to the development is planned for Holmes Hole Road, and the plan calls for more than 80 parking spaces plus a network of sidewalks and a crosswalk.

The property is located a stone's throw from the Tashmoo overlook and lies in the watershed for Lake Tashmoo, a tidal pond that is considered nitrogen-sensitive and is the subject of special environmental protection rules.

Early review by commission staff indicates that the plan falls well within the standards for septic disposal (a high-technology nitrogen-removing septic system is planned).

The bank's traffic engineer reported that the project would generate 166 car trips in a peak hour on a peak day, and 578 daily trips.

Traffic impacts on State Road, the need for so many parking spaces and building design were all cited as issues for more discussion. The plan comes just as the town and the commission begin a long-range planning study of the entire State Road commercial corridor, and discussion is under way again about a connector road.

Tisbury planning board chairman Tony Peak said his board took a preliminary look at the project and generally supports it.

Peg Goodale, whose property abuts the Nobnocket site, said she, too, supports the project.

"I'd rather live next door to the bank than to the A&P," Mrs. Goodale said.

Commission members requested more information about the day care center, which Mr. Wheeler admitted is still very much in the concept phase. They also requested a copy of the 21E report that was prepared for the property, a report required under state law for land that was subject to the disposal of hazardous materials, such as former landfills, gas stations and automotive garages.

The Nobnocket site has a long history, some of it controversial.

In the 1970s the old garage became the site of the Artworkers Guild, a craft and artisan center where many successful Vineyard artists got their start.

Later the site became Helios, a Greek restaurant that was popular among local residents.

In 1987 the property became mired in controversy when Edward S. Redstone, the former owner of the Martha's Vineyard National Bank, floated plans to build a large bank and supermarket complex there. The MVY Realty Trust project was the subject of heated public opinion on both sides, and it also later became the subject of more than one lawsuit.

The bank and supermarket project was approved by the commission, but with a set of heavy conditions including a requirement that the Tisbury voters accept the developer's offer of large gifts of money and land to the town.

The gifts included $400,000 to help pay for the cost of building a connector road between State Road and the Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road.

Town voters later rejected both the gifts and the connector road.

A subsequent five-lot subdivision plan was approved by the commission. In 1991, six years of pitched battles over Nobnocket ended when Mr. Redstone withdrew a fresh plan for a large supermarket on the site.

Now the Dukes County Bank has a purchase and sale agreement to buy the property from Mr. Redstone.

"We have no space - absolutely no space for additional operations," Mr. Wheeler said on Thursday night.

The hearing was continued to August 26.