The Chilmark select board voted to recommend the long-planned Peaked Hill Pastures affordable housing project Tuesday, but directed the planning board to make some key changes.

At a joint Zoom meeting Tuesday, select board members directed the planning board to design a plan for 10 units of rental housing on six acres of the 16 acre town-owned parcel. They further directed the planning board to find an additional four acres at the site suitable for homesite housing.

The planning board submitted a proposal in November for roughly 20 rental and owned units on six acres. But the select board found that to be too dense, also expressing a preference for homesite housing as opposed to a developer-built turnkey model.

“It’s our job to bring something to the town that we feel will best answer the interests of the town in providing housing for residents of Chilmark and residents of the Island on a basis that is within the character of the town of Chilmark,” selectman James Malkin said.

Both boards debated the merits of turnkey versus homesite building.

Planning board member Richard Osnoss argued that the turnkey approach eliminates the difficulty people have getting loans and finding a builder.

“An important aspect of our suggestion to the select board [was] that it be a turnkey situation so we know that it will get done and it will get done in a timely manner,” he said.

But selectman Bill Rossi said the homesite option gives the town more control over who moves in.

“It’s certainly easier for people to move into a home already built . . . but I think it’s as important to have some control of the applicants and they can show they’re from Chilmark or have some related Chilmark work experience . . . and then rental units can be open to the whole Island,” Mr. Rossi said.

The select board did not specify the number of homesite lots.

A planning board zoning bylaw amendment would eliminate a one-acre minimum required for homesite housing and provide setback relief.

“We still want to have a nice amount of space. I think density is a big issue for the select board . . . but certainly open to resident homesites being smaller than an acre,” selectman Warren Doty said.

Expanding the building site to 10 acres addresses the density concern, Mr. Rossi said.

Mr. Osnoss agreed with that part.

“[The planning board] welcome[s] the idea of using more acreage there for housing in addition to the 6.1 acres that were initially delineated for that,” he said.

A private company would build the rental units, Mr. Doty said. The homesite houses would be overseen by Chilmark.

“We have a significant amount of money that we can contribute to this project one way or another,” Mr. Doty said. “We’ve been building up the surplus in our CPC [Community Preservation Committee] account because we know this project is coming. We’ve been sitting on a nice sum of money in the Molly Flender affordable housing trust.”

The goal is to put together a formal proposal for voters to decide on at the April annual town meeting, Mr. Malkin said.

“We definitely wanted to go to the town meeting with a recommended plan rather than a bunch of alternatives. And the reason that we wanted to do that was to move this thing along as expeditiously as possible,” he said.