WILLIAMSTOWN — A divided Board of Selectmen  voted 3-1 Monday to ask the Conservation Commission to remove some or all of two town-owned parcels from conservation to build affordable housing.

The board acted on a written request from the town's Affordable Housing Committee, which believes its efforts to study the "buildability" of the Lowry and Burbank properties is stymied by the fact that the lands are subject to conservation restrictions.

Chairwoman Jane Allen and members Tom Sheldon and Jane Patton voted to make the request while Selectman Ron Turbin voted against.

One Selectmen, David Rempell, recused himself from the conversation after a discussion with the Attorney General's office led him to conclude that his status as an abutter to an abutter of one of the parcels in question creates a potential conflict of interest.

The three members of the majority appeared to be persuaded by the argument of Affordable Housing Committee Chairwoman Catherine Yamamoto, who told the board that putting the issue before the Conservation Commission serves the interest of April's special town meeting vote, the so-called "timeout" to study Lowry and Burbank before taking any action.

"We're hoping the Board of Selectmen will ask the Conservation Commission to lift the restrictions in some way so we can include the properties in RFPs," Yamamoto said, referring to the requests for proposals that would be issued to potential developers. "I don't think we can include them in an RFP when there are restrictions on them because we don't have site control over them."

She added that "in order to get the information we believe town meeting was looking for, we need to get that information from developers as to what is possible on those properties."

Turbin had a different view on the meaning of Monday's vote.

He said that rather than following the spirit of the "timeout," the town's elected officials were subverting town meeting by moving forward on either conserved parcel before all the facts are in.

"(The request) flies in the face of the compromise reached at town meeting," Turbin said. "It was clear that the issue would be tabled. It was so controversial an issue that it was time for quiet reflection and study before any action is taken... For the Select Board to ask the Con Comm to consider removing properties from conservation, we are taking action."

"It's not reflection. It's not study. We're taking an action. In my opinion, it's a gunshot over the bow of the opponents of (developing) this property."

Many of the most vocal among those opponents attended Monday's meeting and spoke passionately against the Affordable Housing Committee's request.

Suzanne Kemple of Stratton Road told the board that she is a longtime advocate for affordable housing who has worked hard on behalf of successful housing projects. She also described herself as a "believer in big government" whose faith in the institutions of local government has been shaken by events in the town over the last year.

"There are people in this community who also need a voice, who have worked hard to build equity in their homes," Kemple said. "They thought that they could trust that they had something and they knew what they had. ... As the process unfolded, I was pleased with what happened at town meeting because people wanted more information. The (Spruces Roof Group) has been reassuring because so much information has been gathered. Trust started to build up again.

"Now we hear, 'No. We're not going to let that committee play out.' You may disagree with me, but this is what people feel out there. What happened? Where are we?"

Kemple implored the the Select Board to wait until more information is gathered before taking any action on the two properties - both of which are being farmed by local farmers by under agreements with the commission.

She, other board members and in the audience challenged the AHC's request that the Con Comm be asked to lift conservation restrictions on "on either a time-limited or open-ended basis," as the selectmen eventually framed its request.

"If you're teasing a developer and saying, 'Yeah, yeah, yeah,' and then you say, 'No, no, no,' you get into some liability issues," Kemple said.

Selectman Thomas Sheldon, who made the motion to comply with the Affordable Housing Committee's request, explained that the commission can decide whether it wants to consider a short-term lifting of restrictions.

"My goal is not to box in the Con Comm if there are options for how they deal with this," Sheldon said.

Although Sheldon appeared to be on the same page with the Affordable Housing Committee throughout the discussion, the two other Selectmen who joined the majority each expressed doubts about the committee's request.

"Personally, I was a little surprised at the request and the timing of the request because I thought the Affordable Housing Committee was doing its due dilligence and I thought the Conservation Commission was doing its due dilligence ... working toward resolving this Lowry and Burbank properties issue," said Allen, who this spring formed a "supercommittee" of various committee heads, including herself, to coordinate the town's affordable housing efforts.

Board member Jane Patton wondered aloud why the conservation restrictions alone were enough to keep developers from making proposals on the sites and, if those developers were put off by the restrictions, why a Conservation Commission decision would be enough to allay the developers' concerns.

"If you came and said, 'five developers refused to participate because of these restrictions,' I could see my way clear and say to people: We could not get the information because of the restrictions," Patton said.

Yamamoto said it's true that the question of releasing Lowry from conservation ultimately would have to go to town meeting, but putting it before the Conservation Commission is one step in a long process.

"I can say that developers are interested in the properties," she said. "We haven't issued RFPs and had developers say they can't [answer them]. Our advisor at the Mass Housing Partnership has told us, 'site control, site control, site control.' You have to have site control before you can advance."

In the end, Patton voted with the majority but noted she did so, "with trepidation."

Turbin tried but failed to convince his colleagues that both Lowry and Burbank can and should be studied further without the need to lift the conservation restrictions.

"I am disappointed the Affordable Housing Committee made this request," Turbin said. "We're resuming the fight we were trying to avoid by tabling this."

Kemple has repeatedly offered to lend her expertise to the town's discussions about subsidized housing and specifically mentioned at Monday's meeting that she will be meeting with the Conservation Commission on Thursday to discuss what kinds of affordable housing projects work and garner funding.

But by the end of Monday's session, she joined several residents who walked out of the meeting after the vote.

"Just call everything off," Kemple said as she left the meeting room.

In other business on Monday night, the Select Board voted to ask the Federal Emergency Management Agency to extend the deadline for placing a conservation easement on the Spruces property.

Normally, such easements need to be in place 90 days after a change of ownership. But under the unconventional grant structure created by the town and park owner Morgan Management in consultation with FEMA and the state Emergency Management Agency, Williamstown would take possession of the park but need to give the current residents two years' notice of the intent to close the park under the state's manufactured housing law.

"We're not going to take possession of the park- if we do - until, I'm guessing, September or October," Town Manager Peter Fohlin said, noting that town meeting still needs to vote on any land transfer. "Two years from that is October 30, 2015."

The board voted to file a request for an extension to that date.

In more routine business, the Selectmen voted to approve a request to hold a block party on Longview Terrace near the corner with Stratton Road on Sunday, July 21.

The board also agreed to investigate a recent letter from Time Warner Cable informing residents of a pending move to switch the town's community access television station to HD channels. The move would require residents either to update their television or acquire a converter (at a cost of 99 cents per month) in order to view WilliNet.

Fohlin said in the past the town had a contract with its cable provider that required the provider to keep the public access channels available on the lowest priced tier of service. He said he has to pull up the current contract to see if there is a similar provision and encouraged the board to pursue the matter with the cable company.

"Why should one single person in the town of Williamstown have to pay 99 cents a month to see WilliNet?" Fohlin asked.

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