A program incentivizing West Tisbury residents to build affordable housing on their property will not appear before voters at the upcoming town meeting.

The West Tisbury select board voted March 8 to remove the program from the town meeting warrant. Citing concerns from the town manager and town attorney, the board considered documents provided by the town’s affordable housing committee for the program to be incomplete.

“It was made clear to the affordable housing committee…that there would need some fairly clear guidance and information about what the [accessory dwelling unit] pilot program would consist of,” said board chair Cynthia Mitchell.

The draft article proposed putting $250,000 toward a pilot program that would provide people with $25,000 grants to handle the pre-development expenses and restrictions on accessory dwelling units.

According to documents on the program, it would help people convert existing space into separate housing. In exchange, the owner would lease the unit at a monthly rent no higher than 140 per cent of the area median income rental rates.

According to Ms. Rand, most of the questions she and town counsel posed to the affordable housing committee remained unanswered at the time of the ballot deadline.

“The responsibility for monitoring this program ultimately rests with the affordable housing committee,” she added. “I have deep concerns at this moment whether the committee has the ability to take on what could potentially be a tremendous amount of work.”

At the meeting, members of the town affordable housing committee responsible for drafting the article argued strenuously against those findings.

Committee member Jeffrey Dubard strongly disagreed, citing other effective ADU programs as comparable.

“There was a lot that was just thrown out there that is everything from not accurate to misunderstood,” he said.

Fellow committee member Amy Upton concurred.

“We have been run off several times now,” she said. “It’s hard not to feel very discouraged by this process…it’s been a tough road.”

The board voted unanimously to take the item off the warrant, though each member noted a willingness to reconsider the item later.

“It’s challenging. I don’t want to throw aside all the work that’s been put into this,” said board member Skipper Manter. “It isn’t dead in the water…it just isn’t ready for prime time yet.”

In other business, the board approved a proposal from Eversource to install a 39-foot electrical conduit under Music street next to town hall. Eversource representative Marissa Jackson said the project is being done to accommodate the new electric bus chargers at town hall.

The work is expected to begin within two weeks, and will involve underground boring to avoid disrupting the road surface.