The Martha’s Vineyard Commission last week closed its public hearing on a proposed boat workshop in Oak Bluffs that is strongly opposed by neighboring Tisbury residents.

The commission is still accepting written testimony on the application from Martha’s Vineyard Shipyard to build a 2,490-square-foot workshop with outdoor boat storage at 49 Holmes Hole Road, which is located in a wedge of Oak Bluffs that abuts Tisbury on two sides. The deadline for written comments is Sept. 12 at 5 p.m.

Residents of William Norton Road, just over the town line, say that despite Oak Bluffs zoning that allows mechanical workshops, their rural Tisbury neighborhood would be degraded by the nautical workshop.

“The development will be visible from my house, and any fire at the property… will threaten my home,” longtime resident Armando Cuppi told the commission Sept. 5, during a public hearing continued from mid-July.

Clear-cutting of trees on the property and the potential for industrial noise, light pollution and contamination from hazardous materials are among other objections William Norton Road homeowners have raised in written and oral testimony.

Responding to the neighbors’ concerns, shipyard owners Phil and James Hale and their representative, Reid Silva, have updated their landscaping plan for the property with fast-growing evergreens and a seven-foot cedar fence atop a berm along the property line.

They’ve also agreed to lower the building site by one foot, Mr. Silva said at last week’s hearing.

“Two feet would turn into kind of a difficult drainage situation, but 12 inches would work,” he said.

The applicants testified that business hours will be from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the shop, which will have six employees. It’s designed with three repair bays and a vapor-tight tank to keep runoff from chemicals and solvents from entering the septic system.

The only work taking place outside the building will be shrink-wrapping boats for winter storage, the Hales and Mr. Silva said.

Martha’s Vineyard Shipyard is accredited as a Clean and Resilient Marina through the Association of Marina Industries, yard foreman Lance Nelligan told commissioners at last week’s hearing.

“We’re one of two marinas in the state of Massachusetts [with] this designation, four in the entire country,” Mr. Nelligan said.

The workshop proposal represents the company’s first effort to begin moving its operations away from the rising waters of Vineyard Harbor, vice president Phil Hale said.

“We’re trying to do it in a thoughtful, responsible way,” he said, adding that the shipyard was flooded out eight times between last Dec. 1 and April 1.

“This is not an expansion,” Mr. Hale said.

His son, company president James Hale, said the shipyard will be developing the site even if the workshop is not approved.

“Our intention on this property is to either build this building or to do housing. That was what we originally bought it for,” the younger Mr. Hale said, noting that the land is eligible for a six-bedroom septic system.

After closing the workshop hearing, commissioners opened a public hearing on Jennifer and Matt Whitney’s proposal to relocate a historic house on their Chilmark property and incorporate it into their residence there.

Known as the Eliashib Adams House, the early 18th-century structure also was home to a once-famous pair of diminutive sisters who were the last members of the Adams family to live there.

Born in 1861 and 1862, Lucy and Sarah Adams were tiny women who toured the United States with General Tom Thumb, the Barnum and Bailey Circus and the Lilliputian Opera Company, before settling down in the 20th century to operate a tea room out of their ancestral home at 50 South Road.

The Whitneys purchased the now-uninhabitable structure last year and have submitted plans to relocate and reorient it on their lot, demolishing a small addition and much of the interior.

“Portions of the second floor are structurally unsound, and the roof has become porous in spots,” Mr. Whitney told the commission, adding that a large portion of the facade has been covered by a tarp since before the couple acquired the property.

“To be clear, we are a little crazy to take this off, but we’re excited to bring this new life into the house and make it a home,” he said.

Only about 15 per cent of the building’s exterior would be affected by the project, according to the Whitneys’ application.

Architectural historian Eric Dray, who prepared a report on the house for the commission, said that moving it away from South Road would have an effect on its historic integrity.

“I’m not saying that to say that it has to stay where it is. I’m just saying that I believe strongly that it should be viewed as a house that is visible from the road,” Mr. Dray said.

The Massachusetts Historical Society has not yet weighed in on the project, hearing officer Doug Sederholm said.

Commissioners also had questions about nitrogen production from the Whitneys’ home, leading Mr. Sederholm to continue the public hearing to Sept. 19 so the applicants could provide more information.