Aquinnah selectmen agreed Wednesday to begin preliminary plans for a modest expansion of the town hall, including the portion of the building that houses the police department.

Town administrator Jeffrey Madison will put out a request for an architect to design a larger meeting room in town hall and an expansion of the police building to give the department more space. The proposed renovation will also include redoing the trim and replacing the windows, he said.

Selectman Juli Vanderhoop and Jim Newman both noted that the town will need to borrow money to fund the renovation, and both stressed the importance of having the support of the town behind them for the project.

“I’m talking about finding a way to get this done and doing it properly so that we have something that’s going to last us 75 to 100 years,” Ms. Vanderhoop said.

“We need a professional person to help with the design of it,” Mr. Newman added.

Mr. Madison said he would like to convene interested people to give more comment on the plans, “so we can develop a groundswell of community support.”

“We need a bigger meeting space and we need at least one more office in town hall,” he said.

In related business, the town is also proceeding with plans to construct affordable housing units, a new playground and a “food forest” on the acreage behind the town hall. Noli Taylor has been working with the Conway School of landscape design to use Community Preservation Act funds to create a plan for the area. She told selectmen the next steps are to begin tagging existing trees, staking out paths to the food forest and mapping out the parking lot.

The next steps are to identify costs and focus on fundraising for the project.

In other business at the meeting, Mr. Madison said four electric car charging stations are ready to be installed at town hall and the Aquinnah Circle. Two will be located at each spot, with signs dedicating the parking spaces for electric cars only.

Selectmen also approved $1,100 for repairs to the town harbor master boat. Aquinnah harbor master Brian (Chip) Vanderhoop previously requested funds for the repair work at town meeting after running aground on a shoal in West Basin, but the cost to repair the hull came in higher than the appropriation.

Before adjourning, Mr. Madison updated the selectmen on how businesses at the beach parking lots have been since their last meeting. Mr. Madison said everything is running smoothly and July receipts were higher than expecting for the summer as a whole.

“It was raising [the parking fee] to $30, that helped us,” Mr. Newman said. “ Just wait until next year.”