Fourteen Island residents are vying for nine open seats on the Martha’s Vineyard Commission this year — a larger field than usual in recent years for the regional planning agency that has helped preserve the Island’s rural character since the 1970s.

Commissioners from Oak Bluffs (Fred Hancock and John Breckenridge) and West Tisbury (Doug Sederholm and Linda Sibley) face a total of five challengers for their seats. Susan Desmarais, Brian Smith and Richard Toole are all running from Oak Bluffs, while Myron Garfinkle and Allen Look of West Tisbury have also thrown their hats into the ring. (Mr. Toole and Mr. Smith are former commissioners.)

Clarence A. (Trip) Barnes 3rd and Josh Goldstein are running from Tisbury, and Christina Brown of Edgartown, Robert Doyle of Chilmark and Jim Vercruysse of Aquinnah complete the slate.

Nine commissioners are elected at large every two years; according to the MVC enabling legislation, at least one and not more than two can be elected from each Island town. Elections go to the top vote-getters (one in each town), with the remaining seats going to those with the next highest number of votes, regardless of which town they represent.

The commission has strayed slightly from its founding legislation in 1977, which calls for 21 members — both elected and appointed and from on and off the Island. In addition to the biennial at-large election, each Island town appoints a voting member to the commission. Dukes County also appoints one voting member. Five members of the commission are appointed by the governor, but only one ­has a vote.

In the past, the governor’s appointed members have participated actively (some have been seasonal residents or have had ties to the Vineyard).

Not so in recent years.

MVC administrator Curtis Schroeder said this week that the commission now has only two governor’s appointees, neither of whom has ever attended a meeting.

Joan Malkin, an appointed commissioner from Chilmark, recalled one governor’s appointee attending in 2014, but also noted that off-Island membership is now completely absent. “I could only speculate and say that it hasn’t risen to the level of politically expedient,” she said, adding that Gov. Charlie Baker may have other priorities. She said having additional voices may not add much value to the discussions anyway.

“We have so many members who have such a range of views that I feel like a lot of perspectives are already represented,” Mrs. Malkin said.

Even without its full membership (there are typically 16 voting members who attend meetings), and despite its sometimes unpopular views on planning and development, the commission has likely shaped the Island more than any other public body.

Ronald H. Rappaport, an Island attorney who counsels five of the six Island towns, was working in the U.S. Senate when Sen. Edward Kennedy filed the Nantucket Sound Islands Trust Bill, which ultimately led to the founding of the MVC. Mr. Rappaport has worked closely with the commission over the years. He said its main regulatory tools — districts of critical planning concern (DCPCs) and the review of developments of regional impact (DRIs) — have had an “enormous” impact in protecting the Vineyard from inappropriate development over the past 39 years.

“But the fact that the commission exists has prevented people from coming forward with projects which would have required Martha’s Vineyard Commission review,” Mr. Rappaport added “— because of a fear or perception that the project would have been costly, would not have been well reviewed, would not have gotten approval. So it’s the projects that don’t get applied where the commission also has had a large impact.”

A months-long review of the commission’s criteria for what qualifies as a DRI led to a number of changes this year, including several that exclude larger commercial developments. Notably, the commission voted to approve an across-the board increase in square-footage thresholds for commercial developments, recreation centers and institutional facilities, and public buildings that serve more than one town. The so-called DRI checklist review involved feedback from town officials and produced a statistical report that revealed, among other things, that the commission has denied only two projects out of about 400 in the past 10 years.

Today, DRIs appear to focus more on commercial developments than they did years ago when developable land on the Vineyard was more abundant. But environmental issues still figure strongly in the commission’s work, with the health of coastal ponds topping the list for long-term planning. An MVC subcommittee is now exploring ways to update its 2006 water quality policy for DRIs, which falls short of targets set by the Massachusetts Estuaries Project.

“I would say at the moment that environmental issues are well respected by most of the commissioners,” Mrs. Malkin said. “But I would also say that the commission currently has — for better of for worse — a let’s-make-this-project-work [approach]. We do not often reject projects.”

That may partly reflect an effort to improve the commission’s standing among Islanders who say they are frustrated with the extra level of review and costs associated with DRIs. During the checklist review process, some town officials sharply criticized the MVC for reviewing projects they felt the towns could handle on their own. But some also praised MVC executive director Adam Turner for welcoming the feedback.

Mrs. Malkin believed Mr. Turner and others have sensed a need to reaffirm the commission’s role on the Island and maintain its relevance. “They are careful to be seen as meaningful and adding value,” she said. And looking ahead to the coming election, she believed the apparent surge in candidates this year could be a promising sign.

“Maybe we are doing our job,” she said.