After more than a year of wrangling among neighbors, the Edgartown planning board this week approved the demolition of a home at 2 Beach street which is more than 100 years old. The decision clears the way for construction of a new home on the tiny lot.

Alexander Marx, a longtime Edgartown summer resident who owns the property, applied for a special permit last year to raze the small house that sits on a nonconforming corner lot, a block from the town harbor. The lot is less than a tenth of an acre, and the house was built long before zoning laws were enacted. It is valued at $1.3 million, according to assessors records.

Board voted unanimously to approve special permit. — Steve Myrick

The demolition plan cleared the Martha’s Vineyard Commission but later stalled when it returned to the planning board. Neighbors vigorously objected to the size and style of the new home as originally proposed. After several rounds of modifications, the new home will be about the same size as the old one. The existing main house is 1,926 square feet, and the new design is 1,965 square feet, according to attorney Geoghan Coogan, who represented the homeowner before the planning board.

“We’re changing the design not just to gain their support but to work with them, trying to meet the needs of the neighborhood,” Mr. Coogan said at Tuesday’s planning board meeting. “We feel we’ve met that.”

The closest neighbors, once among the most vocal opponents, now support the project.

“While we do not wish to see a 100-year-old house completely demolished, we do not oppose the revised design,” wrote neighbors Kim and Barret Naylor in a letter that was read into the record of the meeting. “The massing in front has been somewhat reduced and we appreciate the change in the windows, which now match the rest of the design.”

Planning board member Robert Sparks said he felt the new design will fit the character of the neighborhood.

“When we started this process with this application, I said it was the most nonconforming structure I’ve ever seen,” Mr. Sparks said. “I thought the structure as proposed just didn’t fit. I think they’ve made remarkable progress.”

The board voted unanimously to approve the special permit, which included some conditions to protect neighbors and property during construction.

Mr. Coogan said the owners plan to begin building next winter.