Tisbury is sending its proposed new waterways regulations back to the committee that drafted them earlier this year.

“The feeling within the [harbormaster’s] department is that we … need to revisit the mooring section,” waterways committee chair Matt Hobart told the town select board, during a public hearing Wednesday.

“The regulations surrounding moorings are where the department has the closest contact with the public,” Mr. Hobart said. “We want to make sure we get this right.”

A public hearing on the committee’s new draft rules stretched over multiple select board meetings this fall before closing Oct. 28.

The section on moorings has had further updates, town administrator John (Jay) Grande said Wednesday, and needs additional review by the committee.

During the previous hearing, some boaters complained that the draft’s new rules for maintaining so-called environmentally friendly moorings directly contradict instructions from the moorings’ manufacturers.

Tisbury harbormaster John Crocker and his staff have also recommended changes to the regulations, which Mr. Grande said must ultimately be filed with the state.

“The [Massachusetts] Department of Environmental Protection made it quite clear to me months and months ago that they really don’t have on file all the incremental changes that have been done over the years,” Mr. Grande said, stressing the importance of a thorough review by the town.

“I believe they also have some review oversight as well, so whatever we’re sending up there I want to make sure is fully vetted and addresses the legality lens, the policy lens and operations, procedures … and particularly enforcement,” Mr. Grande said.

The town’s longstanding practice of reserving moorings for locals, which remains unchanged in the draft, has also been called into question by an attorney specializing in maritime law.

William Hewig, a former naval officer, merchant marine officer and Massachusetts Maritime Academy instructor, was hired by the town in October to review the proposed regulations, public testimony from hearings and correspondence from the written record that closed Nov. 2.

The draft’s language does not take into account “federal regulations for the fair and equitable assignment of moorings from a waiting list,” Mr. Hewig told the select board Wednesday.

“As I understand it, Tisbury is the beneficiary of federal funding for dredging and that sort of thing,” he said.

If the town ever wants more federal support for its waterways, Mr. Hewig said, it needs to comply at all times with the Army Corps of Engineers’ policy for assigning vacant and new moorings.

“The Army Corps of Engineers, I think, would say that moorings have to be open and available to all and … can’t be restricted to Tisbury residents, or even Massachusetts residents,” he said.

That was the only legal issue he found with the draft, Mr. Hewig told the board, which voted to have the waterways committee go over the document again before a new public hearing and public comment period are scheduled early next year.

Also this week, the select board approved sending the all-Island housing bank legislation back to state lawmakers, making Tisbury the sixth and final Island town to reaffirm the language approved at town meetings earlier this year.