The Martha’s Vineyard Commission Thursday granted approval for the Alliance Community Church to build a 3,920-square-foot addition to their Oak Bluffs facility.

The commission voted 10-3 in favor of the proposal. This put to an end the church’s long fight for an expansion, which brought out fierce opposition from members of the abutting neighborhood. In December, the commission voted against a more extensive expansion for the church’s facility on Ryan’s Way off Edgartown-Vineyard Haven Road.

“I really think justice was done,” said a gleeful Valci Carvalho, pastor of the Alliance Church, after the meeting. “We walk a long way, we try to do everything to please everybody, we know that’s impossible but we did our best.”

Commissioners who voted to allow the expansion said the proposal mitigated sound and wastewater concerns, and would be a boon to the church community.

“The main impact for the neighbors is noise and we have done our darndest to do a better job than last time,” said commissioner Douglas Sederholm.

In 2008 the church won approval for expansion from the MVC. The church came back before the commission last year for a more extensive expansion, which the commission voted against due to concerns over the visual impact of the building and its potential effect on the surrounding neighborhood.

At the time some commissioners questioned whether the church needed an expansion as the congregation was smaller than it had once been. The church membership fluctuates between 60 and 80 households, according to commission documents. Meanwhile, the church revised its plans again, hoping to win commission approval. The size of the proposed building was reduced by five per cent to the current proposal of 11,808 gross square feet.

The 3,920-square-foot addition will house a 150-seat sanctuary for worship services. Renovation to the existing building would accommodate additional living space as well as a kitchen and classroom space.

The project was approved with several pages of conditions, including composting toilets, prohibitions on amplified music outside the sanctuary, and a 30-foot vegetated buffer on Vineyard Haven Road.

After a lengthy review of the conditions, commissioner Erik Hammarlund said they were too detailed and he couldn’t support them.

“I am not confident that we are going to be able to enforce these conditions and I think these conditions are a crucial part of ensuring that this project is overall beneficial,” Mr. Hammarlund said.

He also said the church had violated conditions imposed on them in a previous commission decision, by holding church services in a space not approved for that use, and tearing down a wall between two rooms.

Mr. Sederholm said holding church services was a violation of their conditions, but not an egregious one.

“I don’t want to give them a pass on it, but I suggest that saying they held church services before they built the sanctuary is a little different than saying they are blasting music all over the place and they are disturbing the neighbors,” he said.

Some of the same concerns raised in previous hearings of the project surfaced again on Thursday from those who opposed the expansion.

Commissioner Madeline Fisher objected to the size of the building.

“It’s a very large building, it’s a very huge expansion and I just don’t approve it,” she said.

Abutters from the Ryan’s Way neighborhood vehemently opposed the expansion throughout the public hearing process, citing concerns about size, scale and noise.

While voting in favor of the project, Mr. Sederholm said the neighbors had carried out the most effective opposition campaign he’d observed in his 12 years as a commissioner.

“The neighbors have been vociferous in their opposition and have done the best job I have ever seen of a NIMBY assault,” he said.

The neighbors’ testimony included harsh criticism of the church’s plans and even church leadership, which often resulted in heated debate on the commission floor.

Some supporters of the church accused the neighbors and the commission of treating the church unfairly because of its primarily Brazilian membership.

Commissioner Josh Goldstein alluded to these tensions with an invitation to the Brazilian community Thursday night.

“I would encourage your community to run for one of these chairs,” he said. “I like having Erik on the commission but there is an open seat in West Tisbury. Come be part of the process, please.”

After the vote, Mr. Sederholm suggested that the church reach out to their neighbors and try to make peace with them.

“There is a tremendous amount of hostility between the church and the neighbors and anything the church can do on its side to try to start mending fences, it will take years to do, but I would strongly urge you to do whatever you can,” he said.

Ten commissioners voted in favor of the project: Clarence A. (Trip) Barnes 3rd, Jim Vercruysse, Christina Brown, Lenny Jason, Fred Hancock, Joan Malkin, Kathy Newman, Doug Sederholm and Linda Sibley. Erik Hammarlund, Josh Goldstein, and Madeline Fisher voted it down.

In other business, the commission voted to allow the installation of dim lighting at the end of the Oak Bluffs fish pier. The pier, which was completed last spring, will also be equipped with a bait-cutting station and an old-fashioned saltwater pump. Lights will be illuminated during fishing season, from April 1 to November 30.

While some fought for a public hearing on the subject, other commissioners said the lights were a logical safety fix and review was not necessary.

“Doesn’t this commission have better things to do?” asked commissioner Josh Goldstein. “This is an outrageous waste of time.”