The Oak Bluffs Copeland plan review committee held its first hearing on the controversial Ocean View Hotel project Monday.

Backed by Boston-based hotelier Charles Hajjar, the proposed Ocean View Hotel is a three-story, 26-room, Victorian-style hotel designed to pay homage to the original Ocean View that burned down in 1965. The Martha’s Vineyard Commission narrowly approved the project in January with 57 conditions.

Buildings planned for the Copeland plan district, where the Ocean View Hotel will be situated in East Chop, are subject to the district’s review to ensure they fit its visual and historical character of the area. Monday’s committee review is the first of many meetings with Oak Bluffs town boards following the MVC’s approval, said attorney for the project Cass Luskin.

Mr. Luskin was joined by project architect Peter Gearhart, and the two gave a slideshow presentation on the build. The committee postponed public comment until July, but members of the public, who packed the Oak Bluffs town hall conference room to the point of overflow, were allowed to ask “factual questions” about the proposal.

The committee wanted to know the total square footage of livable space among its three stories, and Mr. Gearhart said it’s around 18,000 square feet, including the basement employee housing. The basement will house roughly 18 Ocean View employees during the summer season, and in the off-season, it will house construction professionals working in Oak Bluffs and Edgartown.

Mr. Luskin said his team consulted the MVC on the impact of having year-round worker housing in the building.

“It came out to kind of a net positive to have those units available for all the builders coming over,” Mr. Luskin said.

Mr. Luskin also clarified that though the hotel will have a kitchen, it will not contain a restaurant open to the public and will instead serve as a place to prepare “small bites.” He said he will provide the committee renderings of what the parking lot and HVAC systems will look like.

Members of the committee and public raised questions about noise, light pollution and changes to public and private viewscapes in the neighborhood that might come with a large hotel being constructed there. The MVC decision includes conditions designed to minimize noise, as well as a requirement for a documented exterior lighting plan.

Robin Bolles, who lives behind where the hotel would be constructed, said the plan as presented would negatively impact both the view from her property and her use of her backyard.

“The six-foot blockade fence in my backyard is going to definitely not be in my best interest,” she said.

But there was some debate about whether or not preserving the views of neighbors behind the building is under the Copeland plan district’s purview.

Committee chair Gail Barmakian pointed out that the Copeland plan district’s job is to ensure the proposal “does not radically alter the appearance of the building in such a way as to damage the visual integrity of the surrounding viewscape.” She questioned whether the committee should use the Ocean View restaurant, which burned down in 2022, or the historic hotel as its point of reference.

“Do we compare it to what existed, or … compare it to what existed 100 years ago?” she asked.

The committee will reconvene to hear public comment on July 20.