The ongoing discussion of the role of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission in reviewing commercial development continued on Thursday as Oak Bluffs officials took aim at the regional planning commission’s development of regional impact (DRI) checklist.

After a commission meeting last Monday where Edgartown selectman Michael Donaroma urged more leniency in the Upper Main street business district, Oak Bluffs selectmen and town planning board members echoed some of the same sentiments during a joint workshop on Tuesday.

“This DRI checklist comes up every couple years, but it seems very important this time around to the down-Island towns,” said selectman Greg Coogan.

Selectman Ron DiOrio said the town is perfectly capable of regulating its own business projects without the commission, citing as an example the failed push in 2009 to refer to the commission the conversion of the former Oak Bluffs library to a mixed-use pharmacy and residential building.

“That project had gone to the planning board, it had gone to the affordable housing committee, it had gone to the historic commission, it had gone to wastewater, it had gone to the board of selectmen and it had gone to the voters four times — then at the last moment there were those elements that felt it should have been referred to the commission,” Mr. DiOrio said. “I think it’s got to be really clear in the commission’s mind that that is not a referable project.”

Selectman Kathleen Burton agreed with Mr. DiOrio’s assessment of the library project and took issue with the automatic referral of restaurant expansions.

“That doesn’t make any sense to me,” she said. “If you want to make a bed and breakfast and have 10 rental rooms, it’s also a mandatory referral. I don’t know why that’s a regional project,” she added.

“We really are creating a chilling effect on the business community,” said Mr. DiOrio, who cited high fees associated with DRIs to pay for traffic, engineering and archaeological studies.

But selectman Gail Barmakian had another view. “Let’s not just assume that the commission process is so burdensome,” she said. “I know a lot of people who dreaded it and came out saying, you know my project is so much better.”

Planning board members James Westervelt and John Bradford suggested the commission consider regulations for the commercial districts in Edgartown, Tisbury and Oak Bluffs similar to the Cape Cod Commission’s so-called growth incentive zones, where the threshold to refer projects is much higher in areas such as downtown Hyannis.

Planning board member and Ocean Club owner Mark Wallace offered his own interpretation of the commission’s charge to preserve the character of the Vineyard.

“We have pretty established character in Oak Bluffs in our commercial zone,” he said. “One of the reasons it got there was because it has a life of its own. It’s fluid and when you have someone every second trying to say, ‘Well I think it should be like this,’ I don’t think that’s what was intended.”

Mr. Wallace is currently before the commission with a plan to expand the Ocean Club building’s second floor.

Some said it is a waste of time for the commission to evaluate traffic and parking issues in the congested downtown area.

“There is no parking [in downtown Oak Bluffs], there will always be traffic, it is what it is,” said Ms. Burton.

Ms. Barmakian disagreed.

“I’ve seen the problem with traffic creeping down into the residential area,” she said. “It’s going down Beach Road, it’s blocking that view. It used to be just during the day, now it’s going into the night. We do need to pay attention to traffic and parking. I get uncomfortable when I hear that it’s a necessary evil and it is what it is.”

Mr. DiOrio, who owns a business on Circuit avenue, said commission regulations are inhibiting the very kind of smart growth that it has in the past endorsed, as a number of downtown business owners who fear the commission have left second floors vacant rather than provide housing. He said the downtown areas have suffered.

“You have to go halfway up to post office plaza before you find anything open,” he said. “You drive into town and on your left you have a restaurant that’s been closed since right after Labor Day, you have a movie theatre that’s closed and it just looks like the town is boarded up. We should be doing everything we can to keep the town vital.”

The commission, Mr. DiOrio said, could play an important role in the downtown areas by promoting the kind of growth that would make it easier for year-round business owners to stay open.

“There are things that the downtowns need to remain vital and that’s not necessarily another T-shirt shop,” he said.

The commission is currently soliciting feedback from the public and town officials on its DRI checklist and will hold discussions on the first Monday of the month for the next three months about possible revisions.