More than four years after Chilmarkers voted to approve the Middle Line Road development, the first town-owned affordable housing project there, the board of selectmen decided Tuesday to waste no time in making the six resident homesites available to qualified town residents.

“I think awarding them all at once is the right thing to do,” selectman Warren M. Doty said at this week’s board meeting. In a separate interview this week, Mr. Doty elaborated; “We have applicants who have been waiting for this project for years now,” he said. “It’s time to just do it.”

The board could have chosen to spread out the lotteries, awarding each property individually, but instead agreed to hold a single lottery for all six lots. The lottery is tentatively scheduled for Jan. 19.

Chilmark housing committee chair Andy Goldman said that six applications from persons with strong ties to the Chilmark community already have been submitted; a seventh is being confirmed for eligibility. The lottery winners will be allowed to build homes under certain restrictions designed to keep the properties affordable.

In addition to the six resident home-sites, the Middle Line Road project also includes six affordable housing rental units.

Chilmark voters will be asked to appropriate $2 million for construction of the three rental duplexes at Monday night’s special town meeting at the Chilmark Community Center.

In other business, the board voted to adopt a community development strategy plan that will enable the town to qualify for a rehab housing program that is already in place in other Island towns, including Aquinnah, West Tisbury and Edgartown. The rehab housing program would allow homeowners to qualify for no interest loans for home improvement projects.

To qualify for the program, which is administered by the community development organization Bailey Boyd Associates, homeowners must be at 80 per cent of the Dukes County median income, with no limit to their assets. Qualified homeowners would be eligible for loans of up to $30,000, forgivable over 15 years.

“It can help a lot of people, particularly people whose income is down because of the economic situation,” said selectman J.B. (Riggs) Parker.

The selectmen also voted to join in an amicus brief in support of the Cape Cod Commission in a lawsuit regarding Cape Wind. After the commissioners denied permits for the Cape Wind project, they were overruled by the state Energy Facilities Siting Board. They are currently appealing that decision to the supreme judicial court.

The selectmen compared the commission’s plight to that faced by the Vineyard regarding the Oceans Plan.

“My view on it is that I believe in home rule and I really don’t like the idea that they’ve been able to produce this little regulation to circumvent the hard work that all these little communities are doing to try to protect themselves,” said chairman Frank M. Fenner Jr.

Meanwhile oyster harvesting season opened in Chilmark on Wednesday, with a two bushel limit. Harvesting is restricted to Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. There is a three-inch minimum and four-and-a-half-inch maximum for oysters harvested, and the selectmen agreed to revisit the issue later in the season to make sure that they are not allowing overharvesting.

An abundance of bay scallop seed in Menemsha Pond has made it unnecessary to purchase more seed this year. The selectmen agreed to allow shellfish constable Isaiah Scheffer to use the $5,000 budgeted for the purchase to instead pay fishermen to move some of the seed. The fishermen will be paid $25 per hour to move seed on Thursdays and Fridays. The board asked Mr. Scheffer to submit a full report on the total cost and quantity of seed moved when the project is completed.

The selectmen also declined to formally ban a pointing griffon named Maisy from the Island. The board voted in October that Maisy had to undergo a rigorous dog training program after she attacked a Yorkshire terrier, leading to the small dog being put to sleep. But upon her return to the Island two weeks ago, Maisy bit another dog. The dog trainer has since taken Maisy off-Island and agreed to keep her in New York.