Sparks flew over a planned loft apartment complex at the Triangle during a crowded hearing before the Edgartown planning board Tuesday night.

Charles Hajjar’s development project to build eight apartments on the second floor of two adjacent buildings at Post Office Square was approved by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission this spring. The project is now before the town for local review.

Mr. Hajjar wants to build five apartments on the second floor of the building that houses the Edgartown Post Office; three more are planned for the building that houses a Bank of America vestibule and Ocean Breeze Bedding.

More than 45 people attended the hearing, which was continued to July 1.

Chief concerns boiled down to two issues: parking and traffic. The parking lot and surrounding businesses at Post Office Square are frequented daily by many of the town’s residents. The development is also positioned in the thick of the notorious high summer traffic jam.

Residents who spoke challenged Mr. Hajjar on the impact of residential units on the congestion.

“Tell me where, if we have 16 vehicles added to the mix, how that does not increase traffic? Egress, exit, traffic in and out?” asked Dark Woods resident Fred Fournier.

But attorney Sean E. Murphy said studies had shown that the project would not have an adverse effect on traffic.

“People have concerns about traffic and I don’t think it’s news to anyone that there is a traffic problem at the Triangle,” Mr. Murphy said. “There has been for years, and there will continue to be one whether this gets built or not.”

Mr. Hajjar, a partial owner of the parking lot which he shares with Granite Ace Hardware and Edgartown Meat and Fish across the way, has committed to renovating the parking lot to make it safer and more easily maneuvered.

“This plan is especially better than what is there now,” Mr. Murphy said.

The plan includes the addition of 15 more parking spaces at the square, with 14 spots for tenants.

When pressed, Mr. Murphy said he would probably not renovate the parking lot if his apartments were denied.

Tenants also had their say.

Bethany Scanlon, proprietor of Ocean Breeze Bedding, voiced her concerns about parking.

“I am there seven days a week from morning to evening and I see the traffic that goes through,” she said. “Yes, there’s definitely times when you will find parking right away, but there are other times where you will circle around and around and you won’t find one.”

Michael McCourt, a member of the planning board, said the issue of parking was paramount for residents.

“I think the biggest concern in this room is we all go to the post office, and one of the biggest concerns is we are going down there and we are not going to find a place to park because this project is there, and we are going to have to drive around like we do downtown Edgartown, trying to find a place to park,” he said.

Planning board member Robert Sparks said he had calculated that he had visited the post office as many as 72,000 times in his life and never once struggled to find a place to park.

“I have never driven into that parking lot and not found a parking space,” he said.

So far, the planning board has received 16 letters opposing the project and three endorsing it.

One of the supporters is JB Blau, owner of Sharky’s Restaurant, who said finding housing for his staff has reached new heights of difficulty. Mr. Hajjar’s plan proposes lower-end market rate housing for those who can’t afford to buy a home.

“There is a real shortage of rental units in our area which makes it difficult for me to continue to attract the managers and staff we need to run our operations,” Mr. Blau wrote in part in a letter.

Mr. Hajjar has said subletting will not be allowed and the apartments will not be sold or transferred to a third party for at least 10 years.

Construction on the units, which would be handled between September and April, will not prevent access to the post office, Mr. Hajjar said.

Just up the road, rumblings of further B-2 development are underway at Mariner’s Way, where heating and air conditioning contractor James Brennan is looking to build a complex with four commercial and eight residential condominiums.

Following a lengthy presentation about Mr. Brennan’s plans, the planning board voted to refer that project to the Martha’s Vineyard Commission.