More than 50 Edgartown business owners and townspeople attended a Zoom public hearing on the town’s budding outdoor dining plan for the summer this week, with consensus emerging in favor of a plan that would combine some street closures with free-flowing traffic to allow easy access to curbside pickup.

The town has been mulling creative ways to expand restaurant service in the downtown area for a number of weeks. After extensive research, including a look at what other towns are doing around the commonwealth, town administrator James Hagerty proposed the idea of a so-called European plan this summer that would allow for outdoor dining coupled with street closures to open up more space during the pandemic. At a detailed presentation two weeks ago, Mr. Hagerty presented a range of options, from closing off Main and Water streets to creating contiguous “parklets,” that would allow outdoor dining on restaurant properties.

Under Gov. Charlie Baker’s stay-at-home order, restaurants have been restricted to takeout only service since late March. In phase two of the governor’s reopening plan, which could come as early as June 8, restaurants will be allowed to provide outdoor dining, with strict social distancing guidelines.

Governor Baker is slated to announced the details of the phase two plan Saturday.

At an informal public hearing Wednesday with the selectmen, Mr. Hagerty said based on feedback he had heard from the business community, the so-called hybrid model would be the way to go. That plan leaves Main street open to traffic, closes off a portion of the town Church street parking lot and creates parklets, or contiguous zones for outdoor dining at specific locations, possibly including lower Main street.

“The hybrid model would probably be the most applicable, and most satisfying to the most stakeholders,” Mr. Hagerty said. “The fine details of that model, where those locations would be, has to be policy-driven.”

He said the town owed the business community two types of policies: one would involve some sort of permutation of outdoor dining; another would be a policy to allow for curbside pickup — an issue business owners have brought up previously.

On Wednesday, members of the business community voiced their support for the proposal, adding that they generally favored expanding use of their pre-existing premises and as few traffic restrictions as possible.

Erin Ready, president of the Edgartown Board of Trade, said a survey sent out to members of the business community found that restaurant owners supported outdoor dining options, curbside pickup and the free flow of traffic.

“In short, we saw strong support for the allowance of restaurants to expand on their property, or other allotted space for outdoor dining and seating without the changing of traffic patterns,” Ms. Ready said. “We also saw strong support for loading zones to be allowed for curbside pickup.”

Christopher Celeste, who owns Rosewater Market and Takeaway as well as other retail businesses downtown, said he also strongly supported a plan that would allow for the free flow of traffic through town, especially because retailers would have to do curbside pickup. But he cautioned that the town should show careful discretion in picking locations for the parklets.

“I think it’s really important that in choosing what you close and where you create parklets that the town doesn’t inadvertently put itself in a position of picking winners and losers, where certain restaurants have proximity to a parking lot or parklet and they gain some advantage and others struggle,” Mr. Celeste said. “That’s a challenging thing.”

Mr. Hagerty and selectman Arthur Smadbeck said the town would try to come up with a proposal to discuss and potentially vote on at their selectmen’s meeting Monday. Mr. Smadbeck said flexibility would be the watchword going forward, and he reminded business owners that the situation was changing rapidly.

Public safety and health officials, including police chief Bruce McNamee, health agent Matt Poole, fire chief Alex Schaeffer and building inspector Reade Milne, all voiced approval for the plan, noting some logistical challenges such as ensuring EMS and bathroom access, lighting and outdoor furniture issues. They said all could be worked through.

Mr. Hagerty said he would examine how other towns were planning to implement similar proposals, and adapt it to Edgartown, for the meeting on Monday.

“I won’t be reinventing the wheel on this policy,” Mr. Hagerty said. “If it doesn’t work, and it turns into a lot of concerns on multiple levels, we pull back the reins, and just don’t do it.”