Two Edgartown hotel redevelopment proposals kept the Martha’s Vineyard Commission busy Thursday, as a strident group of neighbors railed against spas, pools and what they called “creeping, crawling” commercial development in the town.

In a pair of public hearings Thursday night that ran more than three hours, both the Hob Knob inn and Harbor View hotel pitched modified expansion or renovation plans to the commission.

Although the plans and hotels are quite diffferent — the Hob Knob is looking to double its number of rooms and expand across Tilton Way, while the Harbor View wants to add a spa — the proposals drew a similar cohort of vocal Edgartown residents who felt both projects represented unnecessary commercial expansions in the residential village.

A premier luxury hotel at the tip of North Water street, the Harbor View has been chipping away at a large-scale, $55 million redevelopment project for the past two years. The proposal before the commission Thursday is actually a modification to the redevelopment that would keep the total number of rooms the same but reorganize the hotel’s layout.

The primary feature of the proposal — and the sticking point for neighbors — is an expansion to the current Bradley cottage that would add a seven-room, full service spa on the site. Parts of the redevelopment, including renovations to the hotel’s main building, have already been completed.

In a presentation at the outset of the hearing Thursday, Harbor View general manager Scott Little and attorney Sean Murphy said that while the spa would be open to the public, particularly in the shoulder seasons, it would not be marketed separately from the hotel. They described the facility as a necessary amenity for the hotel to compete in a cutthroat hospitality market.

The hotel does not currently have a spa.

“The business plan for us is making this part of the amenities with the hotel,” Mr. Little said. “There is no storefront. The intent is that this building, very much on purpose, blend in and not say its name too loudly.”

Neighbors felt otherwise, saying that the spa was just one of many incremental changes at the hotel that reflected a larger change of use — a view articulated by abutter Bob Forrester.

“I have been feeling for a long time that we are witnessing a fundamental change in the business of the Harbor View hotel,” Mr. Forrester said. “Are we now at a tipping point, and is the Harbor View, and other places, going to become different from something they intended?”

Joe Wargo, an attorney who also lives next to the hotel, called the changes “death by a thousand cuts,” asking that the commission defer making a decision on the modification until a larger meeting had been held between all stakeholders regarding the hotel’s broader use changes.

“The truth is, this property is overtaxed already,” Mr. Wargo said. “Is it appropriate to have golf carts, all the time? Is it appropriate to have jet skis? Is it? Is it appropriate to have horse and buggy carriages? This is what people are against.”

Hotel management disputed many of the complaints from neighbors, arguing that uses like jet skis and carriages were largely unaffiliated with the hotel operations.

Upper Main street Edgartown residents Jane Chittick and Sara Piazza, who have been vocal critics of commercial development in the town, also both spoke during the hearing. Ms. Chittick noted that there are spas in town already, and Ms. Piazza said she stood with residents who felt their neighborhoods were changing.

“I’m very concerned about the creeping, crawling businesses into the residential zone,” Ms. Piazza said. “It needs to be curtailed.”

Commissioners continued the public hearing after just over an hour of presentations and testimony, moving on to a different hotel expansion plan on the other side of town.

A boutique inn situated on Edgartown’s Upper Main street, the Hob Knob has been before the commission for nearly nine months with a major expansion plan that would double its rooms from 17 to 36 and expand its spa. The inn has signed a purchase and sale agreement with owners of the Tomassian Law Office across the street and plans to expand onto the property.

After a trio of public hearings, the applicants pulled the plan this winter, opting to remove a proposed pool on the Tomassian property, reconfigure the parking lot to eliminate double parking, and decrease the size of the main building by about 400 square feet.

But at the new public hearing on Thursday, neighbors continued to vent about the plan, saying that the changes were essentially too little, too late. Neighbor Bill Fruhan noted the coincidence that the Hob Knob and Harbor View projects had been scheduled for the same night, thus allowing the commission to see in “full flower” how the hotels threaten to overwhelm residential zoning.

“The journey of the Hob Knob expansion proposal through the MVC reminds me of a story I heard from a contractor. The story is about how you mollify neighbors,” Mr. Fruhan said. “They hope to gain MVC approval by appearing to be conciliatory.”

Ms. Chittick and Ms. Piazza also took the opportunity, once again, to plead for the commission to stop the “whittling away” of residential districts by special permit.

“It’s despicable and disgusting. That’s all I have to say,” Ms. Piazza said.

The view was echoed by others in the neighborhood, including former Edgartown commission appointee James Joyce, with testimony continuing in a similar vein for approximately 45 minutes.

But to close out the hearing, Hob Knob hotel owner Bill Booth was given an opportunity to speak, during which he defended the proposal, the Hob Knob’s character as a boutique inn rather than a motel, and the recent changes. And he said that the hotel did not want to get rid of the pool, but considered its removal a fair concession.

“We don’t intend harm or evil,” Mr. Booth said “We’re trying to compete in a very, very difficult business in a difficult market.”

Commissioners closed the Hob Knob hearing. The written record remains open until Jan. 28 at 5 p.m., after which a post-public hearing review was tentatively set for early February.