A meaty 20-article warrant will confront voters at an Edgartown special town meeting Tuesday, addressing a proposed trust and accompanying bylaw to govern affordable housing and the potential town acquisition of 180 feet of private beach at Cow Bay, among other issues.

The meeting is set to begin at 7 p.m. at the Edgartown elementary school; moderator Philip J. Norton Jr. will preside.

Chief among the articles is a proposal to extend the Bend of the Road Beach by leasing 180 yards of beach at Cow Bay.

The Cow Bay Corporation has offered the land, on a 500-year lease of $1 per year, in exchange for spoils from the dredging of Sengekontacket Pond to combat erosion.

The town dredge, which recently completed a project to dredge 10,000 cubic yards from Sengekontacket and deposit the spoils at Bend in the Road beach, would pump 27,000 cubic yards of sand from Sengekontacket Pond onto Cow Bay beach.

Also up for a vote is a request to transfer $750,000 to complete an eminent domain purchase on Robinson Road land which the town intends to use to expand the New Westside Cemetery.

The town voted to take the property for $1.55 million in 2006. The property was under agreement at the time for sale to a private buyer.

Paul Donovan, the contracted buyer for the property, later sued the town claiming a higher value. The lawsuit is pending in U.S. district court based on diversity of citizenship; Mr. Donovan is an out-of-state resident. If approved by voters, the $750,000 represents a settlement in the case.

Richard Renehan, a special attorney representing Edgartown in the case and a partner with Goulston and Storrs in Boston, said the prospect of a federal civil trial, where jurors were less likely to be familiar with local property prices, was cause for concern.

“In my judgment the intent is that Massachusetts land damage cases are heard by citizens with knowledge of the neighborhood,” he said. The settlement recommended in Tuesday’s article would bring the total price for the approximately two-acre property to $2.3 million. The $750,000 will come from a combination of funds left over from a conservation project at Pennywise Path begun in 1998, from community preservation trust reserves and a Chappy fire station fund.

The proposed affordable housing trust and its governing bylaw, addressed in the first two articles on the warrant, would streamline purchasing and give many powers to a seven-member board made up of affordable housing committee members, a selectman and two members at large.

In an amendment to the proposed bylaw, following a public forum on the issue, the trust would be required to seek the approval of the selectmen on most matters.

The trust would give affordable housing money a designated account, a pressing issue in the light of a $1.8 million payment coming from the Field Club.

Developers of the members-only recreational facility in Katama won the right to pay the town instead of designating three lots on their property for affordable housing, following a decision by the Martha’s Vineyard Commission in September.

An initial $718,000 installment of the Field Club payment has been received by the town, according to town accountant Kimberly Kane. If the trust is enacted, she explained, any remaining installments will go directly to the trust and can be spent by the board without further town consultation. A third article on the warrant requests permission to move this first installment to the housing fund.

It is followed by two articles requesting permission to purchase property on 22nd street from the estate of John Dias to sell as affordable housing. If articles one and two pass, votes on this purchase would not be officially required.

Proceeds from a windfall lawsuit for Edgartown form the basis of an article requesting $160,000 for the North Water street beautification project.

In 2005, a trace amount of methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), a toxic gasoline additive, at the federally allowed limit but posing no health risk, was found on a single occasion in a town well, allowing Edgartown the town to join a nationwide class action suit.

Last month the town received a $295,000 payment from Massachusetts law firm Rodman, Rodman and Samuels, which brought the class action lawsuit against a major MTBE manufacturer.

At a meeting later in the month selectmen floated the prospect of passing on the windfall cash to the North Water street project before Edgartown water superintendent Fred Dumont.

The water commission already had plans for the funds, hoping to finance painting of the town standpipe (water tower). However, according to Mr. Dumont, after a conversation with town administrator Pamela Dolby later in the week, it was decided the needed money would be reimbursed to the water department with proceeds from the future sale of two town-owned lots.

The water commission voted unanimously to support the selectman’s proposal on the understanding the funds would be reimbursed within five years.

The privately-funded North Water street project, spearheaded by longtime resident of the street S. Bailey Norton, is in its fifth year and carries a working price tag of $3.2 million.

Though the warrant article says the money would go to pay for outdated underground pipes, the cash would in fact be used to kick start the project’s final phase, burying the power lines.

In a recent interview Mr. Norton said project donors are street residents and other community members, some of whom have contributed several times.

Another article seeking $80,000 from community preservation funds and a further $66,000 in a ceiling insurance account addresses the need for repairs to the historic town hall.

In June large chunks of the hundred year-old horsehair plaster ceiling fell down, leading to the evacuation of most of the top and second floors of the building. Many departments are now squeezed into temporary office space, with selectmen’s meetings held alongside the desks of busy town personnel.

Then last month, during the repainting of the Main street front of the town hall, workers found extensive rot, soaked through beyond a thin facade put up during an earlier rennovation.

Mrs. Dolby said the request is an estimate of what is needed since the scope of the repairs required for the building front is still unknown.