The definition of agriculture is under scrutiny by the Oak Bluffs zoning board of appeals, as neighbors butt heads with a landscaper over what types of equipment are required to grow trees and other plantings.

Working Earth Gardening and Landscaping has been using a small piece of a residentially zoned 55-acre property owned by Goodale Construction Company which has become the subject of an ongoing ZBA public hearing. Abutters have voiced numerous complaints about the enterprise, and others, operating at the site.

Last July, town building inspector Tom Perry issued a cease and desist order barring Goodale’s from allowing the property to be used by several businesses that did not possess permits for the work being done there. Most other operations were evacuated from the property, but Mr. Perry determined that Working Earth is an agricultural business and permitted the landscaping company to continue using the land.

Under Massachusetts law, agricultural use is protected by right on residential land.

Working Earth’s neighbors disagree with the building inspector’s assessment, and have been trying to halt the landscaper’s operation since the fall.

“I’m hearing the noise on a consistent basis,” said Patricia Ingalls, an abutter and one of the appeal’s 22 signatories.

Neighbors filed an appeal of Mr. Perry’s decision late last year, citing noise and the storage of commercial equipment in a residential neighborhood.

“We do not believe that a landscaping business can be construed as an agricultural use …. A landscaping business is an entirely different type of land use than agriculture,” reads the appeal, dated Dec. 10, 2021.

Abutters and Working Earth owner Jude Villa both appeared last week before a ZBA hearing accompanied by attorneys. While Ms. Villa argued that supplies she stores at the site are necessary for the trees and plants she grows there, abutters claimed items such as fire wood, stones and large trucks have little to do with agriculture.

Abutters also called into question the legitimacy of Working Earth’s growing operations at the site, claiming trees and shrubs were only planted after the building inspector gave Ms. Villa permission to continue operating in November.

In an unsigned letter to the zoning board of appeals dated Feb. 14, a drone photograph of Working Earth’s operation taken Dec. 9 shows a portion of the site with no trees or other plantings. Another photograph taken in late January shows rows of trees and shrubbery.

“They clearly show that the building inspector’s assertion was erroneous,” attorney Jonathan Sweet said, speaking on behalf of the abutters.

Ms. Villa said the photos are misleading and crop out parts of her operation that contained agriculture at the time.

“They conveniently left out my whole area of shrubbery and everything,” she said.

The photos became a further source of contention when Ms. Villa’s attorney Howard Miller said taking such photographs of private land was uncalled for.

“These people have really invaded the privacy,” he said.

Additionally, Ms. Villa argued that any noise her neighbors have heard could not have been coming from her, and likely came from a nearby site such as Eversource. She said noise on the Goodale property has quelled since the cease and desist order in July.

Peter Goodale, owner of the property agreed.

“It’s not me, it’s not Jude,” he said. “It’s happening on another property and we’re getting blamed for it.”

The ZBA continued the hearing to March 17. Comments from the board, however, largely revolved around deciding what amount of agriculture on-site constituted an agricultural operation. At times, members argued that Ms. Villa’s supplies were necessary for an agricultural operation.

“You have to keep weeds and other things from [agriculture],” board member Andrea Rogers said of Ms. Villa’s rocks, wood and other stored items. “I think those things are necessary.”

To prepare for the March meeting, board member Llewellyn Rogers asked Ms. Villa and Mr. Goodale to compile a list of information, including a breakdown of how much of the Working Earth site is used for agricultural purposes.