The family that plans to build a private championship caliber golf course along the shore of Edgartown Great Pond is fully aware that its plans will be examined with scrupulous care by Island environmentalists.

But Rosario (Russ) Lattuca and his son, Barry, have hired one of those environmentalists as a consultant and are inviting conservation groups and the public at large to review the 18-hole golf course plans and make suggestions. Dr. Arthur G. Gaines of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution envisions an extensive program of environmental protection, including using the Edgartown wastewater treatment plant as a source of the vast quantity of water that golf course maintenance requires.

Last Friday, the Lattucas signed an agreement to buy 195 spectacular acres of property from the MacKenty family, which insisted — and the Lattucas readily agreed — on a perpetual no-development provision.

“We have no interest in houses,” Barry Lattuca said during an interview this week. “Our dream is to build a world-class golf course on that site.”

The sellers are Jeremiah MacKenty, his brother, John, and his sister, Katharine Bigelow. John MacKenty retained 57 of his 95 acres.

The price of the purchase will not be revealed until the actual sale, which probably will not take place for another year because of the necessary review of the 18-hole golf course proposal by various town boards, the Martha’s Vineyard Commission and state environmental agencies. It is expected, however, that the sale will be in the $10 million range.

The economic appeal of the links proposal seems clear. Rosario Lattuca said the course will take 18 months to two years to open after the plans are approved and the land sale takes place. The facility will cost some $6 million, he believes.

Membership fees in the club have not been determined. But a new course on Nantucket promptly sold out memberships at $200,000 apiece, which the senior Lattuca said “seems high to me.”

He plans to offer 300 to 320 memberships, however, and even at $100,000 apiece, that’s a minimum of $30 million. It seems likely the total will be considerably higher. Even if the land purchase and golf course construction costs are as high as $20 million, the investment seems worth the risk of footing the bill for a year of preliminary studies.

The high demand for golf club memberships on the Island, the senior Lattuca said, will make it easy to raise financing for the project.

Because of the area’s residential zoning, the golf course must be private and nonprofit, the Lattucas said. The family is forming a limited liability company that will include Rosario Lattuca’s wife, Grace, and his daughter, Dina. When the course is completed, it will be transferred to a nonprofit corporation owned by those who purchase memberships.

Golf course designer Tom Fazio, based in Hendersonville, N.C., will come to the Island in the next two weeks for a site visit, and topographic maps are being prepared.

The senior Lattuca said the plan is to offer October-to-May memberships to Islanders at much lower fees, and will provide for public golfing after 4 p.m. in the summer, much as Farm Neck Golf Club currently does.

The Lattuca family ties to the Vineyard are not extensive, but Barry Lattuca has rented here, and the entire family plans to vacation here this summer. There are two houses on the MacKenty land. The one currently belonging to Jeremiah MacKenty will be used as a seasonal residence for golf club employees, the Lattucas said. The home now shared by John MacKenty and Katharine Bigelow will become the Lattuca family’s Island home.

The golf course itself, Barry Lattuca said, “will have a very modest clubhouse. There will be no swimming or tennis.”

It was the younger Lattuca’s vacation on the Vineyard that convinced him and other family members that this is an ideal spot for a new golf course. The family looked into buying the old Vineyard Acres II (now called Wintucket Farm), but were unsuccessful. It also explored the possibility of buying Webb’s Camping Area in Oak Bluffs, where another group now hopes to build a golf course.

But once Vineyard Realtor David Thompson introduced them to the Edgartown Great Pond property, “we knew it was the very best property available,” the senior Lattuca said.

“Of course we’re concerned” about other groups seeking to build golf courses on the Vineyard, he said. “We think there’s a market for one more private club and we want to be the first.”

The Lattuca family has owned golf courses in the past, one in Rochester, N.Y., and one in Valdosta, Ga. Currently the Lattucas own a “golf learning center” — a driving range and school — in Natick.

Mr. Gaines said he signed on as a consultant only with the understanding that the golf course be designed to represent an actual improvement in the great pond environment.

A key is his plan to “capture the plume” of the wastewater plant and use it to water the links, rather than using “pristine ground water.” There long has been concern about the nutrients that the plume may feed into the pond, “and this could head off the problem for perpetuity. Even no development at all wouldn’t address the plume.”

Furthermore, he said, the nutrients would feed the golf course grasses. He estimates that the flow of the wastewater plant is roughly equivalent to the amount of water needed by the proposed course.

Mr. Gaines acknowledged that there is some confusion as to the exact location of the plume. “We have to remove the uncertainty about where the plume is,” he said. “We know roughly where it is; we need to know exactly. Then we have to figure out how to regulate tapping into the plume.”

The area’s ecosystem as a whole will be protected, he said. “The shoreline can’t be altered, the wetlands must be respected and maintained, and any chemicals on the golf course must be planned and monitored.”

He intends for the property to have a Great Pond Center that will focus on improving the pond. He hopes there will be educational programs with the schools, and the facility will closely monitor the area’s environment.

Plans call for the private club to have limited public access. Trails are planned on the outer perimeters of golf course property, although the design and perhaps hours of use will have to be regulated not to clash with golfers.

“The course must be put together,” Mr. Gaines said, “with respect for the watershed, the pond and the Island.”

Rosario Lattuca proudly endorsed the environmental planning. “I don’t think there’s another golf course in the world that monitors itself,” he said.

Added his son: “We want to raise the standard and have other golf courses copy us.”

Speaking of the plans by Mr. Gaines, the senior Lattuca said: “We never heard of Arthur’s ideas before, but we really like them. Anything we do, we want to be proud of.”