The Martha’s Vineyard Commission is fast-tracking its review of a proposal by the Martha’s Vineyard Airport to renovate and expand the terminal in West Tisbury.

Commissioners held a public hearing on the airport plan Thursday night and will deliberate on May 8. Written comments are being accepted until noon on May 5.

The airport is seeking to renovate 5,000 square feet of its existing, 16,800-square-foot terminal and to add 15,000 square feet of new space.

The larger terminal is designed to improve the experience for commercial passengers and airport workers — not to accommodate larger numbers of them, airport director Geoff Freeman said.

“We’re not anticipating growth here,” he said, noting that the airport is hemmed in by roads, properties and easements that prevent it from expanding its operations.

“Our apron space does not allow us to expand,” Mr. Freeman said.

The airport is in line for a $15 million Federal Aviation Administration grant to update the terminal — if it acts promptly, he told commissioners.

“They gave us a strict timeline that we needed to meet in order to seek that [funding],” Mr. Freeman said.

The airport has until July 1 to submit its application, with a contractor’s bid in hand, he said.

“We need to be out to bid this month,” Mr. Freeman said, thanking commissioners for their willingness to accelerate the project review.

Built at the site of a former World War II air training base, the airport was last updated in the 1990s and the terminal building has been obsolete since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 led to heightened airport security measures across the country.

Transportation Security Administration agents and their equipment have been using space that wasn’t designed for them, while passengers in the busy travel season often wait outside under a tent.

“The tent is an extreme deficiency. It was pretty much a makeshift of trying to meet standards,” Mr. Freeman said.

The proposed renovation and addition would do away with the tented waiting area, as well as a portable restroom that serves it, bringing both functions indoors.

The new terminal also would streamline the traffic flow for arriving and departing passengers, he said.

Vehicle traffic, which tends to back up on West Tisbury and Barnes roads, will be a tougher challenge to solve because the Massachusetts Department of Conservation and Recreation has conservation easements on both sides of the airport entrance.

“[The airport] can’t change Airport Road at all until they get cooperation,” commissioner and hearing officer Douglas Sederholm said.

However, he said, airport management has agreed to work with the MVC, the airport towns and the state transportation department on solutions for the congestion, including paying a share of the cost for a traffic consultant. 

In other business Thursday, commissioners began their public review of Cat Hollow in Vineyard Haven, where Island Housing Trust is applying to build three mixed-income condominium duplexes on a 2.7-acre property near Veterans Memorial Park in Tisbury.

The trust bought the land at 25 Lobster Alley in 2022, including an existing three-bedroom house it leases to the Martha’s Vineyard Transportation Agency for employee housing.

The six ownership units in the three proposed duplexes would be deed-restricted in perpetuity, with two of them restricted to owners earning up to 80 per cent of the area median income, two to owners earning up to 150 per cent of the median and two to year-round Island owners who would be required to live there for 11 months out of the year.

Short-term rentals would be prohibited.

Earlier this year, residents in the Causeway Road area collected more than 50 signatures on a petition opposing the development for its potential impact on neighborhood traffic and safety.

Testimony from the neighbors is expected when the public hearing on Cat Hollow continues May 22.

Also Thursday, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission opened and closed a hearing on the Flanders family’s request to demolish an antique barn on their Chilmark farm.

The structure, which may date from earlier than 1800, is partially collapsed and beyond the point of restoration, said construction engineer Benjamin Souza, who inspected the barn.

“This is probably a good candidate for some salvage pieces to be reused — which is, I think, what the applicant is planning to do — but not a good candidate for restoration,” Mr. Souza told commissioners.

Architect Joseph Dick said he has designed a replacement building for the family that evokes the lines of the old barn.

There was no public comment on the Flanders’s application during the public hearing Thursday. Written comments will be accepted until 5 p.m. May 8.