West Tisbury is pumping the brakes on plans to renovate the Howes House after the select board voted Wednesday to withdraw an article to appropriate $215,000 for a project now estimated to cost $10 million in total.

Chilmark and Aquinnah were already wavering on chipping in to renovate Howes House, which serves as the headquarters for the Up-Island Council on Aging. The West Tisbury town historic commission was also pushing back on designs.

Neither issue was likely to be resolved before town meeting, prompting the board to pull back.

“Little bumps have been coming along the way, but the bumps have been getting bigger,” said select board member and Howes House building committee chairman Skipper Manter. “We need to take a step back and take a breath.”

The Howes House project has drawn much discussion since voters approved $523,000 to hire a project manager and a designer last year. Many residents have been pushing for expanded programming from the organization, which targets the 55-plus age bracket. This culminated in a focus group of up-Island seniors organized by Healthy Aging MV. Following the that focus group, the building committee awarded a $900,000 design contract to Falmouth-based Keenan + Kenny Architects in December.

But high hopes for the future of the building have crashed into the reality of renovating a century-and-a-half old building in a time of exponentially rising construction costs.

According to the state historic commission, the Howes House was built as an inn in the mid-19th century and was donated to the town by Gladys Jones in 1976. Its status as a historic building in West Tisbury town center gives the historic district commission the right of refusal on renovations.

A recent joint meeting of the building committee and historic commission did not bode well for cooperation, said Mr. Manter.

“There was not a lot of positive response,” he said of their reaction to draft designs. “There wasn’t constructive criticism.”

The historic restrictions, combined with extensive requirements to bring the building up to code and into compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, as well as constraints from nearby existing infrastructure, have all contributed to the high price tag.

West Tisbury’s proposed that the project’s funding be split between the three up-Island towns along the lines of the tri-town ambulance building (which split construction costs three ways, and operation costs proportional to use).

The proposal was met with skepticism from the other towns.

The Aquinnah select board decisively pushed back against the funding model in October, while the Chilmark board was hesitant to lend their support to the project at a meeting last week.

“With the growth in our town, and the capital projects we’re involved in . . . I’m not so sure it’s a great idea for us,” Chilmark board chair Bill Rossi said.

The West Tisbury Select board will make their case for a collaborative funding model to the other up-Island towns at meetings next month.

Mr. Manter’s updates weren’t all bad news, though, as he said the West Tisbury Library trustees have expressed a willingness to host some programing requested for the new Howes House. This comes despite earlier reservations from the library about their having the necessary staffing.

This, in addition to a town visioning process set for this spring, may help inform a new design, Mr. Manter said.

“I don’t want to say we’re pausing the process completely, we’re moving in these different directions,” he said, noting that the architects will continue preliminary work.

“This to me, should be a positive community effort that people can rally around, and at the moment we’re not near there.”