Where Island businesses and Island residents meet in West Tisbury, friction has followed.

On Thursday night a public hearing continued at the Martha’s Vineyard Commission on Big Sky Tents to determine whether their proposed facility in the West Tisbury light-industrial district is an appropriate use of a property that abuts a residential zone and makes use of an ancient way.

Big Sky Tents, which currently operates out of a facility in the airport business park, has proposed building an additional 9,600-square-foot facility to store tents in the light-industrial district of West Tisbury on the corner of Pine Hill and Dr. Fisher Roads. Larger than Up-Island Cronig’s, the proposed building has alarmed some residents in the adjacent rural residential zone.

“The reason this building is this size is not because we want an oversized building but because we need space,” said Big Sky engineer Reid Silva, who said the light-industrial district is one of the only places on the Island they could build such a facility.

The zoning in the area has a complicated history.

The light-industrial district was created in 1982 by voters at a town meeting. It was discovered later that two of 11 lots in the district were unintentionally bifurcated. In 2000 the lot lines were readjusted as part of a larger overhaul of the town zoning bylaws; the end result was that the two lots lay completely in the light-industrial zone.

Abutter Constance Breese, a vocal objector to the plan, owns property that abuts one of the previously split lots.

“Emotionally it feels like people have sort of written the area off — ‘Oh, it’s next to the dump, it’s next to Keene [Excavation],’” said Ms. Breese, “but it’s actually a very nice, quiet residential area.” She said she is concerned by the proposed building’s size and the increased use of Dr. Fisher Road by trucks.

But Mr. Silva countered the criticism.

“For light industry, it’s about as light as you can get,” he said. He said the tent business would operate within normal business hours and that it would be seasonal and used mostly for storage. He said the three trucks that Big Sky operates are smaller than the Federal Express trucks which regularly traverse Dr. Fisher Road.

Others objectors include David and Libby Fielder, whose property sits across from the lot; they have objected to Big Sky’s operating hours. Although Mr. and Mrs. Fielder acknowledged they believe Mr. Eddy is making a good faith effort to mitigate the impacts of his business, in a letter to the commission they questioned classifying an operating schedule of May through December as seasonal and claimed that Big Sky’s weekend operation would damage the tranquility of the area.

“Just when the neighborhood quiets down, Big Sky would be pulling trucks in and out of Dr. Fisher Road to service Island events,” the letter said.

“The light-industrial zone has to abut the residential zone somewhere,” said Mr. Silva, “and we don’t think this will change the character of the neighborhood.”

At the end of the hearing commission member Christina Brown expressed her gratitude to Big Sky owner Jim Eddy for his efforts in responding to the concerns of the community.

“Thank you for understanding that it’s a give and take,” she said.

The hearing will continue on Sept. 16 when the commission will review architectural plans for the proposed building.

Also at the commission on Thursday night, Jeffers Lane on Chappaquiddick and Old Wood Lane in Edgartown were approved for designation as special, or ancient, ways. The move represents an expansion of the special ways portion of the Island Road District, a district of critical planning established by the commission in 1975 as a way to preserve for the public traditional paths that crisscross the Island. Many ancient ways are preserved as walking, horseback riding or bicycling paths, but Jeffers Lane, which has seen development along it for years, will be designated a special vehicular way, which allows for the continuation of light traffic. Edgartown byways committee member William Bassett told the commission that the path has special historical significance and that support on Chappaquiddick for the move was unanimous.

“This road goes back at least to colonial times and was probably even an old Indian trail,” he said. At the northern end of Jeffers Lane is a historic cemetery overlooking Cape Pogue that includes Wampanoag gravesites, including the site of William A. Martin, the only African American whaling captain from the Vineyard.

Development is prohibited within 20 feet of either side of the centerline of special ways, and the designation ensures that the roads will never be paved. The move was prompted by increased development in the area, a trend that the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank has beaten back by purchasing properties along the path and “undeveloping,” or removing structures.

The other ancient way, Old Wood Road (the earliest mention of which comes from a topographical survey from 1898), runs from Meetinghouse Way in Edgartown north, past the Island Grove subdivision, to Quenomica Road, itself a special way. Old Wood Road is not a special vehicular way and will be closed to traffic.

“These roads tend to get overgrown or people turn them into access for subdivisions,” Dudley Levick of the byways committee said. “That’s not what they’re for, they’re for public use.”

Mr. Levick said that Old Wood Road used to continue through what is the bottom end of development on Hye Road, through the sewage plant, across West Tisbury Road and continue up to Ben Tom’s Road, another ancient way.

“At one time these were all connected,” Mr. Levick said.