A key subcommittee of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission voted 7-0 with one abstention Monday night to recommend that the full commission deny a plan by the owner of the former Lampost in Oak Bluffs to sharply reduce the number of restricted workforce apartments in the building.

“It kind of ticks me off that the applicant came to us with something we enthusiastically endorsed [four years ago] — and now he wants to reduce it by two thirds,” said commissioner Linda Sibley at a meeting of the land use planning subcommittee Monday.

Lampost owner Adam Cummings wants to modify the plan approved by the commission in 2018 that created 10 apartments with 22 bedrooms on the top three floors of his building. All the units were restricted as workforce housing. It came to light last summer that some of the units had been rented out as short-term rentals through Airbnb, dating to 2019.

Mr. Cummings clashed with the commission over the issue at a meeting late last year, later submitting a formal request to reduce the workforce units from 10 to four. A public hearing closed last month; the full commission is scheduled to vote on the modification request on Thursday night.

Both the Oak Bluffs planning board and affordable housing committee have asked the MVC to deny the request, citing procedural issues and the critical need for work force housing.

At the land use planning committee meeting Monday, commissioners were in nearly complete agreement about their recommendation.

“I have to say, if we’re talking about benefits and detriments, I don’t see how we could possibly say that a 60 per cent reduction in workforce housing could possibly be anything but a detriment,” said commissioner Fred Hancock. “Also, the town based its special permit approval on our condition that these were all workforce housing . . . I don’t see how we can walk that backwards,” he added.

“The more voices on this the better,” said commissioner Kathy Newman. “We’re dealing with this as the number one problem on the Vineyard right now.”

Commissioner Clarence A. (Trip) Barnes 3rd agreed. “I was very excited when this came up,” he said, referring to the 2018 plan. “It should be workforce housing,” Mr. Barnes said.

Land use planning committee recommendations are not binding, although they can be a bellwether of the vote.

Two attorneys representing Mr. Cummings attended the meeting, held over Zoom.

On Monday there was brief discussion after commissioner Brian Smith asked for a definition of work force housing. MVC housing planner Christine Flynn said there was no clear definition, instead describing general income parameters for housing intended for year-round and seasonal workers. But commission DRI coordinator Alex Elvin later corrected that, reading from the commission’s definition.

The roll call vote on the recommendation to deny was as follows:

Linda Sibley, Kathy Newman, Doug Sederholm, Trip Barnes, Ben Robinson, Fred Hancock and Christina Brown voted yes.

Brian Smith abstained, citing a lack of clear definition of workforce housing.