The house at Tea Lane Farm in Chilmark needs $500,000 worth of repairs and renovations to prepare it for a future farming family, a special subcommittee told the Chilmark selectmen this week.

The committee of Frank Fenner, Leonard Jason and Dick Smith presented preliminary plans to the selectmen at a public hearing Tuesday night that show a much-altered interior layout but keep the existing exterior the same.

“The difficulty was as a town being able to prepare the structure for affordable housing at a reasonable cost,” Mr. Fenner said. The farmhouse sits at the intersection of Tea Lane and Middle Road.

Needed repairs to the 18th century home include new windows, plumbing, exterior trim, insulation, sheetrock, flooring and doors wide enough to meet the fire code. The stone foundation is in good condition, Mr. Fenner said, but needs some cleaning out and a new concrete floor to keep out moisture.

The covered porch is also in fine shape and will remain unchanged.

The restoration project has proceeded in fits and starts for the past 10 years. The town and the Martha’s Vineyard Land Bank jointly bought the farmhouse and surrounding land in 2001, allowing a life estate for Bobby Silva. When Mr. Silva died in February 2010, a committee was formed to come up with a plan for the farm and surrounding pastureland. The town owns the farmhouse and the surrounding three acres; the land bank holds the title to the 48 acres of farmland.

At a special town meeting in the fall, voters shelved a request for $300,000 for the project because no formal design plan had been submitted, and instead voted to form three committees — a farmhouse, land use and management committee. Voters did approve $30,000 to develop the plan presented at Tuesday’s hearing.

Meanwhile, selectmen and the land bank agreed to lease out the farmland for the summer season.

Once the farmhouse restoration project is done, the selectmen will issue a request for proposal for people interested in renting the farmhouse and lands for a working farm.

But first Chilmark voters need to approve the plan and the price tag at a special town meeting in the fall. The base estimate, done by A.M. Fogarty, is $321,000, but with contractors’ fees, bonding and appliances, the total cost climbs to $500,000.

Mr. Fenner said the town community preservation committee has agreed to contribute $150,000, and selectman Warren Doty suggested paying for the project in a manner similar to the Field Gallery in West Tisbury. Voters in that town committed future community preservation funds to help buy the outdoor gallery at their annual town meeting in April, but selectman Jonathan Mayhew said he was wary of dictating decisions for future selectmen.

Tea Lane resident Clark Goff said he liked the plan, but thought it was too expensive and worried about retaining the historical nature of the house.

“It’s expensive and I’m a little concerned about how little respect there was for framing in the old house,” Mr. Goff said. “It’s too bad you have to take the old house and take a chain saw to it. Can you change the design and work around the [old] bays?”

Draftsman and Chilmark resident Elise Elliston said the new plan will actually expose the antiquity of the house even more than it does now, including the bays.

Mr. Fenner said when the project goes out to bid the specification booklet will include saving anything of historical value such as the doors and fireplace mantel.

Chilmark resident Jay Ayer suggesting selling the house to a private owner after the restoration was done, but Mr. Doty said the plan all along has been to create an affordable home for a farming family.

“The town bought this so it could be a town farm. I want to see a town farm where things are grown . . . and part of the agricultural heritage of this town,” Mr. Doty said. “I think selling the farmhouse and three acres has us lose that dream of it being a town-owned farm and a farming family living there.”

He continued: “We bought it with this vision. You can say the vision is flawed or doesn’t work but that was our plan. All over New England movement is that it isn’t enough to preserve farm land, you have to preserve farmers . . . that’s been my vision and the town’s vision when we bought it.”

Melinda Rabbitt DeFeo, Mr. Silva’s niece, said the design was respectful to the original character of the house.

“I felt if the house had been passed down to the family, it would need updating . . . the house would change,” Mrs. DeFeo said. “It’s not going to look the same, I know that. But being outside and sitting on that hill, it means a lot that when I’m coming down that road, whether I get to live in there or not, the house will still be sitting there. Thank you for all your hard work; you’ve done a great job.”

The plans are available for inspection at the Chilmark selectmen’s office.