The town of Oak Bluffs has decided to take a harder look at operations at the Goodale’s Sand and Gravel Pit in Oak Bluffs. Recently-appointed building inspector James Dunn has determined that a hot asphalt storage silo operating on the site since last April runs afoul of town zoning.

The 70-acre sand and gravel pit in Oak Bluffs has been the subject of scrutiny for the past year as first the town and then the Martha’s Vineyard Commission reviewed the property at the request of neighbors who protested the mining operation’s expansion, as well as a new, taller asphalt storage silo erected on-site. At those public hearings abutters claimed the new silo was emitting noxious fumes and soot.

In December Mr. Dunn rejected a permit application from the tower’s operators, the Lawrence-Lynch Corporation. This week Lawrence-Lynch filed an appeal with the town’s zoning board of appeals.

Mr. Dunn said the concerns of the abutting Little Pond and Iron Hill communities had become difficult to ignore.

“The building department, as with any other inspector in town, is required by law to address any kind of complaint,” Mr. Dunn said in his office on Thursday. “When you have that many people you can’t ignore it. And it has been ignored in the past.”

Mr. Dunn was named town building inspector in September following the resignation of Jerry Wiener.

The asphalt storage silo in question had been previously designated a “piece of equipment” rather than a “structure” by Mr. Weiner, and as such it did not require a permit. While an exact height of the structure is unavailable, it far exceeds the zoning limit of 32 feet, and neighbors say it is 30 feet taller than the structure it replaced. In November 50 abutters submitted a petition to the building department demanding that Mr. Dunn classify the silo a “structure,” making it subject to town zoning.

“It is a structure and it doesn’t conform,” Mr. Dunn said Thursday. He said that the town’s change of heart resulted from a “changing of the guard” in town hall.

“The building inspector changed, the town administrator changed and the policy of this department changed,” he said.

At Mr. Dunn’s direction the Lawrence-Lynch Corporation submitted a permit for the structure in December, which was rejected. They must now seek a special permit from the zoning board of appeals. A ZBA hearing on the matter has been tentatively scheduled for Feb. 16.

To the asphalt plant’s abutters, the town’s action on the issue comes as welcome news. Barbara Ronchetti, who owns and operates Island Alpaca, says that in recent months neighbors have seen windows and windshields coated in soot.

“The rules need to be applied,” she said. “There’s no one against them operating the plant — it’s been operating for years — but as long as they’re doing it to code.”

The well-known sand and gravel pit predates modern zoning and sits on a 100-acre lot that has been used for sand and gravel mining operations since the 1930s. In 1943, an asphalt plant, the only one of its kind on the Island, was installed; in 1962, ownership of the facility transferred to current owner Jerry Goodale’s father, Robert. At a public hearing in April Jerry Goodale said that the new, larger asphalt plant tower was merely a replacement for an older worn-out structure. According to a commission staff report Goodale’s has 500 to 600 accounts with various contractors on the Island and has 20 full-time employees.

On Thursday Mr. Dunn said that his ruling would not have any immediate effect, as the pit does not produce asphalt in the winter. He also said that the ruling did not affect the operation at the sand and gravel pit or even the asphalt plant itself, only the storage silo.

On Thursday, Ms. Ronchetti acknowledged the role of the pit on the Island.

“We all know we need an asphalt plant on the Island,” she said. “It’s been helpful for the construction industry, for people building homes and schools and highways and the airport, but as long as it’s done in a healthful, fair, equitable manner.” she said.

The Gazette was unable to reach Jerry Goodale or his son, Peter, at press time.