West Tisbury’s affordable housing committee is redoubling its efforts to fund private affordable housing projects in town, after the group’s proposed accessory dwelling unit (ADU) bylaw pilot program failed to gain voter support at the special town meeting this November.

The pilot program, which proposed raising $250,000 to fund the creation of ADUs such as garage or basement apartments on private property, failed by a majority vote of 24 to 80.   

At a meeting on Nov. 28, committee members discussed plans to rework the proposal for the next annual town meeting.

“While this was an unfortunate and disappointing stumbling block, between now and April, I want to be entirely focused on getting this passed,” said committee chair Jefrey DuBard.

Mr. DuBard partly blamed the lack of support for the project on a dearth of public outreach.

“Much of the commentary was unfounded and, you know, some of it was uninformed,” he said.

Committee member Amy Upton, meanwhile, said the demographic skew of the special town meeting did not favor their plans.

“The people that I’ve talked to in the community who are in support of this idea, weren’t at...this special town meeting,” she said. “Maybe there were 24 people under the age of 55 in attendance.”

Michael Colaneri, another member, argued that town funding for the ADU program might not be the way to go.

“The townspeople obviously don’t want to spend money for that,” he said. “My suggestion would be that you have to seek funding elsewhere.”

The committee did not vote on changes to the proposal, but made plans for a series of outreach meetings on the program with town residents, as well as a joint meeting with the planning board.

The first public outreach meeting is scheduled to take place in January.

-Thomas Humphrey