The Martha’s Vineyard Commission has approved a complex plan for an automotive garage on High Point Lane in Vineyard Haven, with a long list of conditions including strict septic provisions to protect Lake Tashmoo.

Joseph DeBettencourt, owner of Buddy’s Auto and Truck Repair Inc. in Oak Bluffs, said he plans to begin clearing the site as soon as possible. Nearly all the trees will be removed to make way for a 5,166-square-foot garage and 13 parking spaces.

The commission reviewed the project as a development of regional impact (DRI) since it includes a commercial building larger than 3,000 square feet. Throughout the review, which began in October, commissioners expressed support for the project but also raised concerns about intensity of use on the half-acre site.

The site slopes from east to west and will require retaining walls on all four sides, with the wall facing the road to be set back four feet to allow for vegetation. Mr. DeBettencourt plans to regrade the edge of an abutting town property to allow for a shorter wall on the east side. The town selectmen and planning board have said they would support a temporary construction easement for that purpose.

Among other things, the commission required that a landscape plan be submitted within six months of a certificate of occupancy and maintained in perpetuity. The plan will include street trees and other vegetation, “and a visual softening of the faces of retaining walls visible from public ways,” according to the list of conditions.

A six-foot high chain-link fence will top the retaining walls, with a four-foot-high fence on the downhill side. At its meeting last Thursday the commission further required that the fence be black, at least partly to create a more attractive substrate for ivy.

Commissioner John Breckenridge suggested having a short berm on the downhill side to help control runoff in the event of a heavy storm. But commissioner Jim Vercruysse thought that might make matters worse if water collected and burst through. Mr. Breckenridge said he would normally agree, “but this whole piece of property is so unusual, with the re-landscaping and the regrading and the construction . . . that I see that as a necessary component.” The commission agreed to require that the landscape plan include a consideration of a berm, unless an engineer finds it unnecessary.

To help mitigate the effects of nitrogen loading in Lake Tashmoo, the garage owner will be required to install a denitrifying septic system with a maximum allowed output of 3.14 kilograms of nitrogen per year. If the output is exceeded, the owner would need to hook up to the town sewer (if it becomes available), pay a mitigation fee, or meet the limit some other way.

Regardless of the whether the limit is met, if the town sewer becomes available, the applicant will need to hook up within 10 years of installing the denitrifying septic system.

Commissioners generally supported the project despite its complexity and the loss of vegetation.

“The problem with the Island is there are very few commercial spaces available,” said commissioner James Joyce, echoing the views of others throughout the review. Commissioner Leonard Jason Jr. said the project is in keeping with the character and identity of the area, which is zoned for commercial use.

The final roll call vote was 8-1 to approve the plan.

Commissioner Joan Malkin, who cast the lone dissenting vote, agreed that the site was appropriate in terms of intended use but questioned the development plan, in particular the use of the entire property and the clear-cutting of trees. “It’s very easy to say there are very few commercial spots available on the Island,” she said. “I don’t feel that we have a record before us to say that this is the most appropriate available site.”

Commission chairman Fred Hancock was happy that the DRI review process had led to at least a slight increase in vegetation and landscaping.

In other business, the commission quickly decided not to review a 1,700-square-foot expansion to the Evolve Pilates studio on Upper Main street in Edgartown. The Edgartown planning board had referred the project in November since it triggered an item in the DRI checklist that requires some expansions of 1,000 feet or more to be referred. The board had strongly urged the commission not to concur and to remove that item from the checklist altogether.

Commissioner Christina Brown noted that Edgartown’s Upper Main street master plan had been in effect for about a year when the Evolve building was proposed and that the town planning board had worked closely with the architect and owner. “That’s the kind of building that the Upper Main street plan encouraged,” she said.

A subcommittee of the MVC has begun reviewing the DRI checklist and plans to continue its work in the new year. Committee chairman Linda Sibley said she understood the town’s point of view in this case, but also defended the concurrence process, where the commission decides whether to review a project.

“We recognized a long time ago that sometimes numbers just don’t do it, that you catch very small fish in your net and want to throw them back,” Mrs. Sibley said.