The chair of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission came to the Chilmark Select Board Tuesday to ask why some larger projects in the up-Island town never came before the regional planning agency.

The commission was created about 50 years ago to assist the Island towns with planning and to protect the Island’s environment and character. The commission regularly reviews sizable projects, but chair Joan Malkin said that there have been two recent examples in Chilmark that could have come before the commission but didn’t.

Both the recently completed Tri-Town Ambulance building and the soon-to-be completed new barn at Beetlebung Farm are projects with regional impact, but were never referred to the commission for review, Ms. Malkin said at the Tuesday meeting.

“How come the Beetlebung Farm and the Tri-Town Projects…were never referred?” she asked the board.

The referrals may have slipped through the cracks, said select board chair Bill Rossi, though he also emphasized the town’s own rigorous review process that both of the projects had to go through.

“The last thing we want to do is have this mock [MVC] review process when it’s already done and paid for,” he said. “The horse has left the barn.”

One potential reason why projects may have never made it to the commission is because Chilmark hasn’t had a full-time building inspector until recently. Commission referrals are typically made by the inspector.

“For a long time we’ve needed to have a full-time building inspector and we finally do,” Mr. Rossi said. “A lot of these things won’t be slipping through the cracks.”

Mrs. Malkin encouraged the select board to prioritize referring future projects to the commission.

“I do think that often a review from the MVC improves a project,” she said.