The Board of Selectmen Tuesday postponed a decision to let the Swifts Beach Improvement Association manage a controversial 5.35 acres of town land adjacent to the public beach.

For more than a year, the town has sought to find a nonprofit conservation group or state agency who would agree to be the holder of a conservation restriction and, as a result, manage the land.

The proposal by the Swifts Beach group appears to indicate the restriction does not have to be held by a conservation group or agency and that the Swifts Beach group may be a suitable holder.

A vote was postponed after Selectman Cara Winslow asked that Town Counsel first review the proposal.

Outgoing Selectmen Jane Donahue and Brenda Eckstrom pushed to approve the association as the new holder of the restriction pending counsel’s review. A motion yo to that effect failed as Selectmen Walter Cruz and Steve Holmes agreed with Winslow’s concerns.

“I want it vetted by counsel,” Holmes told the board.

The property was taken by the town by eminent domain in 2003 for "general municipal purposes" with the understanding that the owner would accept $450,000 for the land. The Board of Selectmen at the time cited the desire to expand access to the public beach.

When the property’s owner subsequently contested the town’s offer in court and was awarded an additional $1.1 million, the town turned to its Community Preservation Act funds to help pay the settlement and purchased a “conservation restriction” on the land.

Since then much of the issue is based on who will hold the conservation restriction and manage the land. The Selectmen told the association it will vote on the issue at its next meeting.