It began 10 months ago as an idea.

This week, the idea took a giant step closer to reality when Aquinnah became the sixth town to support the creation of a housing bank, modeled after the Martha's Vineyard Land Bank.

The concept is called the Martha's Vineyard Housing Bank.

Now the heavy lifting begins.

In order to become law, the housing bank needs approval from the state legislature and also every Vineyard town.

"We're very encouraged by the towns' positive votes, and now we start the process of forming the language for what we hope will become a legislative bill," said Abbe Burt, the campaign manager for the Martha's Vineyard Community Housing Bank Coalition. "Along with the four towns passing the Community Preservation Act [CPA], we have a real chance to do something positive for the housing situation on the Vineyard," she added.

Ms. Burt has been the point person for the last 10 months in the campaign to win approval on the town meeting floor for both the Community Preservation Act and the nonbinding question on the housing bank.

The CPA has now been adopted by every Vineyard town and is expected to bring in money through a three per cent surcharge on property taxes. The surcharge is matched by state funds, and each town may designate a portion of the money for affordable housing.

The housing bank concept calls for generating money for affordable housing using a one per cent surcharge on real estate transactions over $750,000. The outline is similar to the land bank, but not exactly the same; for example the housing bank plan calls for a seller-paid transfer fee, while the land bank fee is paid by the buyer.

Ms. Burt said yesterday that the next step for her coalition will be to form a new subcommittee made up of two people from each of the six towns to take the lead in drafting language for a legislative bill, a process that is expected to take four to six months.

She also said that in those four to six months the committee will seek comment from the various town housing committees and other Island organizations like the Martha's Vineyard Commission and the Vineyard Conservation Society. The coalition also plans to hold several forums to gauge public sentiment.

"We are really using the land bank as a guide, so it's not like starting from scratch," Ms. Burt said. "The input the towns have given us so far regarding the resolution's language has been helpful in determining Islanders' concerns, and we will probably tweak the language a bit to reflect those concerns."

With the help of Cape and Islands Rep. Eric T. Turkington and Sen. Robert O'Leary, the committee plans to enlist the assistance of Massachusetts House and Senate counsel to draft the final legislation, which Ms. Burt anticipates will be done sometime in the fall.

Once the draft legislation is complete, the group plans to ask Mr. Turkington to submit the bill to the state legislature. If the state legislature approves the bill, the legislation comes back to the Vineyard for a final vote in all six towns.

Both Ms. Burt and Mr. Turkington acknowledged the difficult road that lies ahead.

"This will clearly be an uphill fight," Mr. Turkington said. "Nobody in Boston likes legislation that introduces taxes. The climate has to be right, and the weather can change all the time. But the fact that each of the six towns voted for this says a lot, and they should be applauded for that."

"We know it is not going to be a slam dunk," Ms. Burt agreed. "How Beacon Hill responds is the real wild card."

Ms. Burt said she does not know how long the process might take once the bill reaches Boston, but she said that the housing coalition hopes to present the legislation to Island voters for final approval two years from now, in the spring of 2007.

Mr. Turkington called the timetable optimistic.

"It could be three, you just can't say," he said. "Sometimes, three years is not that long of a time regarding legislation," he said.