Aquinnah residents and officials this week considered ways to create a new town center without sacrificing the rural character of the community. 

The town hosted a listening session Thursday to garner ideas and feedback on a proposal to make a new overlay district that would allow for a new town corridor. During the session residents expressed interest in more year-round housing and commercial spaces.

The session, held at the town hall and over Zoom, was attended by 30 people and is part of a study funded by a $95,000 Massachusetts Rural Development grant that the town received in 2024. The study is designed to envision a corridor that would connect different parts of town.

Aquinnah hired Rhode Island-based municipal consulting network Libra Planners in April to gather community responses and help envision the corridor, which is planned to center around the town hall and stretch along a portion of State Road. 

The project is in its initial stages and the town hopes to have zoning bylaw ready for town approval at the 2026 annual town meeting. The vote would not approve a specific development, but just make it possible in the town’s permitting process.

“What we’ve been brought in to do is to create the conditions in the regulatory documents for such a thing to happen,” said Kim Salerno, principal of Libra Planners. “We can’t actually promote development.”

At a listening session in July, Libra Planners presented different models throughout the Island such as the downtown area with street frontage along State Road in West Tisbury and the woven paths between cottages in the Oak Bluffs Camp Ground. 

Aquinnah residents were then asked to fill out a survey ranking the models and listing what they’d want in a town center. 

The survey revealed that respondents value the rural character in-town and are interested in having space for year-round housing and commercial spaces. Respondents listed a convenience store, internet and computer access, community craft space and a coffee shop as desirable.

“We’re a town that actually has a lot of entrepreneurial people in it,” said Peter Temple, a member of the Aquinnah corridor committee. “But right now, the only way you can do a business is it’s got to be in your home.”

Residents envisioned a town campus using local architecture and discussed possibilities for a walking path to connect different parts of town.

Some residents were concerned that the traffic in town wouldn’t be enough to support additional commerical opportunities. Others asked about putting limitations to not take away from other businesses in town, such as the shops at the cliffs. 

Libra Planners will host another listening session in the new year with updated plans where residents can share their ideas and concerns.