Tree talk dominated a meeting of the Edgartown board of selectmen Monday, as they reviewed three requests for shade tree removals.

In Edgartown, trees that stand within a public way cannot be removed without a hearing in front of the selectmen.

One hearing concerned a property at 96 South Summer street, where major renovations will bring the facade of the house to face the street.

Landscape architect Kristen Reimann presented her proposal, which would remove seven trees at the downtown property, and replace them with two to three American elms.

“Most of them are either in fair or poor condition,” Ms. Reimann explained of the trees slated to come down.

The trees form part of a vegetated screen that currently shields the house from the street, and selectmen said they wished to preserve the wooded character of the public way.

“It would be nice to see a plan that would put back the canopy that is being removed,” said selectman Michael Donaroma, who added that the trees obscure the wiring that hangs over the street.

He said replacing seven trees with three seemed weak to him. The tree group includes a sycamore maple, a Japanese maple, a weeping willow, an apple tree and a pair of American elms.

But Ms. Reimann said the planned renovations would include a street-facing porch, which makes planting shade trees in front undesirable.

“It is going to be difficult to recreate what’s there because we are changing essentially the facade of the house on the street, and the current house is set much further back,” Ms. Reimann said. “So it is going to be a change in the character, in the relationship of the house to the street.”

Ultimately, she agreed to plant five shade trees. The hearing was continued to next week, when Ms. Reimann was asked to return with a better plan.

Mr. Donaroma left the room for the other two hearings, which were for clients of his landscape service.

In his absence, selectmen endorsed the removal of two trees at 99 School street, both of which were deemed to be in poor health.

“The two existing trees are both in really poor, declining condition,” tree warden Stuart Fuller said in support of the petition. He said they were small and didn’t offer much aesthetic benefit to the town.

Cammie Naylor, who represented the property owner, said they planned to replace the pair of sycamore maples with two autumn glory maples, which Mr. Fuller confirmed was a net gain for the town.

“I like that we will be getting two new trees for two bad trees,” said selectman Margaret Serpa.

The board also approved a plan to remove a declining Norway maple at 85 South Summer street and replace it with two linden trees.

“That one does look like it needs help,” Mrs. Serpa said.