A private pier large enough to trigger the definition of a marina will return to the Edgartown conservation commission next week after the applicants for the pier decided to scale back the size this week.

There was talk of class warfare and fascism. There were dark forecasts of Martha’s Vineyard as a community polarized between very rich and very poor. There was a crowd. Last Monday’s was not your standard meeting of the Martha’s Vineyard Commission land use planning committee.

But as commission executive director Mark London noted even before it began, there’s something about the subject of big houses which gets people going.

A lean budget, new library and a series of zoning bylaw changes top a hefty 68-article warrant that awaits Edgartown voters at the annual town meeting Tuesday night.

Longtime moderator Philip J. Norton Jr. will preside over the session; the meeting begins at 7 p.m. in the Old Whaling Church.

Voters will be asked to approve a $27.5 million budget, up 3.4 per cent over last year, largely due to increased education assessments, a large police and fire department budget and funding for a town dredging project in Sengekontacket Pond.

Oak Bluffs residents accustomed to the marathon week-long spectacle that has come to characterize town meetings in recent years will be shocked to see the length of this year’s warrant.

“It’s very short,” said selectman Ron DiOrio this week. The push for simplification comes as a reaction to last year’s town meeting which saw 30 warrant articles and some 12 Proposition 2 1/2 override questions. Voters rejected 11 of those overrides and sent selectmen scrambling to reorganize the budget. The town meeting ran into a second week.