A new paid town parking lot is one step closer to coming to Oak Bluffs.

The town’s select board voted Tuesday to move forward with the permitting process to turn the empty lot at 0 Uncas avenue into a parking lot, though the mechanism by which patrons will pay for parking is still up in the air.

The board will now approach the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, the Cottage City historic district commission and the Oak Bluffs zoning board of appeals to get permission for the project.

“Once the plan itself has been approved as presented, the town will be able then to start going through the process with it all in permitting, so we can get some of it up and ready to start using by next year,” select board member Tom Hallahan said.

The approved plan was drafted by Dan Doyle, a special project planner with the Martha’s Vineyard Commission, and reflects the board’s feedback from Mr. Doyle’s initial presentation of several plans for the Uncas lot in 2024.

According to the draft plan, the parking lot project is expeected to cost $1.12 million, spread across three different phases of development. Town administrator Deborah Potter advised the board to not be alarmed by the sticker price, as the town does not need to procure all the features included in the estimate and will save money where outsourcing labor is not required. She also said other previously discussed additions, such as a sidewalk and electric vehicle charging stations, don’t have to be implemented immediately. 

The board did not vote to allocate any funds for the parking lot Tuesday.

Ms. Potter suggested that revenue from the parking lot could offset the cost to the town for simply owning the land, which hovers around $50,000 per year. The board will decide at a later date how to charge for parking, but mentioned a pay-by-hour kiosk and parking permits as potential solutions.

The town acquired the Uncas lot in 2022. Several officials this week expressed urgency about getting the project moving.

“We’re sitting on [land] we’re not doing anything with,” said select board member Dion Alley. “We’ve invested money as a town and not made any modifications to it. I don’t think we’ve done well by the town.”