A former boatyard office building, standing on temporary supports at 51 Lagoon Pond Road, has become an eyesore and a danger to the public, several people told the Tisbury select board Tuesday afternoon.

“I have seen people use that property as a restroom … and it’s disturbing,” said Jessica Lopez, who moved in next door two months ago.

Elaine Miller recounted a scary moment during a walk on Lagoon Pond Road, when her three-year-old great-grandchild darted beneath the raised structure.

“I was horrified,” she said.

“What is the liability that we as a town are facing by having that building there? Not only is it an eyesore, but it’s a safety factor,” Ms. Miller said.

Robert Hayden, whose Cape Cod-based Hayden Building Movers relocated the office from Safe Harbor Marina in the fall of 2023, said vagrancy and drug dealing also has taken place around the structure, which is owned by Jefrey DuBard.

Dan Larkosh, Mr. Hayden’s attorney, said the building is still sitting atop the equipment used to move it to the spot a year and a half ago.

“The steel beams, the pilings, they all belong to my client. So that’s his property under that building. He would like to remove it,” Mr. Larkosh said.

Believed to have begun its life as an up-Island church, the structure was moved to Vineyard Haven in the 1940s by boat builder Erford Burt, who used it as the office for his Lagoon Pond boatyard.

Subsequent owners of the business, now a Safe Harbor Marina, raised the building on piles to keep it above the rising high water.

In 2023, Safe Harbor gave the building to Mr. DuBard, who hired the Hayden company to move it to his lot at 51 Lagoon Pond Road — but did not give the go-ahead to set it on the ground, said Mr. Hayden, who told the select board that the building is uninsurable and cannot leave the property again.

“When the whole move started, there was an assumption that it was a historic building, and they found out that it was not historic at all,” Mr Hayden added.

Tisbury fire chief Patrick Rolston told the select board that the raised structure also is blocking access to a fire hydrant.

The building has been boarded up since last fall, after vagrants entered it, Mr. DuBard told the select board, which voted Tuesday to order it fenced off as a public safety measure.

The vote gives Mr. DuBard until May 13 to enclose the building with a steel fence. He is scheduled to meet with town administrator Joseph LaCivita that afternoon and to appear in person before the select board on May 20 to present a plan for permanently siting the building on his lot.

Among other business Tuesday, the select board approved a common victualler’s license for the new restaurant replacing Little House Café on State Road.

Chef-owner Carlos Montoya, who is leasing the building from Brook Katzen, said The Maker Pasta Shop & Café will be a casual, year-round eatery serving lunch and dinner and selling some retail foods such as grab and go sandwiches, salads and fresh pasta.

The restaurant will apply for a transfer of the Little House beer and wine license and perhaps seek to add other alcohol in the future, Mr. Montoya said.

An opening date for The Maker Pasta Shop & Café has not been set.