EASTHAM — It looks like the wind has been knocked out of the two town meeting articles that sought to create bylaws regulating public wind turbines. The town has been grappling with a controversial proposal to construct up to four 400-foot-tall wind turbines on 12 acres of town-owned land off Nauset Road.

Supporters of the dueling articles agreed Wednesday that they would make a motion to indefinitely postpone the measures on town meeting floor, in favor of forming an ad hoc committee that would “hash out the differences” between the two.

One article is backed by selectmen and the energy committee, and another was put forward by petitioners who abut the location. The key difference between the two was the setback requirement, with the town proposing a 540-foot setback from houses in the neighborhood, and with the petitioners proposing a 1,200-foot setback.

Lead petitioner Phil Hesse, who attended the meeting with Peter Farber, the attorney representing the abutters, told selectmen that he would move for indefinite postponement of the petitioned bylaw provided the selectmen agree to form the ad hoc group after town meeting and “to sit down together and hash out the differences between the two bylaws so that we could come up with a single bylaw.”

Selectmen were in favor of creating the ad hoc group that Hesse proposed, but agreed it is too early to decide on how many people should serve on it, and who should be appointed. But they assured Hesse and the nine other abutters at the meeting that they would have a voice on it.

Earlier this month, selectmen agreed to seek indefinite postponement of another article that would have enabled the town to lease the land originally considered for four turbines after learning there are ownership issues with the parcels.

Hesse said the ad hoc group could come up with a new bylaw acceptable to all, and also work on procedural matters “so that we’ll know exactly where the lot lines are. As a builder,” he said, “that’s what I’m required to do,” and the new group could work on something that would be acceptable to both sides.

Andrew Wells, one of the abutters who signed the Hesse petition, said he wanted it known that the articles would be indefinitely postponed not only because of title problems on the maps, “but also because of issues that we raised and questions that we asked and never got answers to. I look forward to this ad hoc committee as an opportunity to explore those issues together. I want to be clear that this committee is more than about ironing out land issues, but we are working together toward a bylaw, acknowledging that everyone on the ad hoc committee is in support of wind energy in Eastham, but also in support of protecting the amenities of the citizens of the town.”

 Collins turns over new leaf?

Eastham Selectman Ken Collins showed a new side Wednesday when he presided as acting chairman of the board’s meeting with abutters opposed to the plan to place four wind turbines in their neighborhood. There was no pounding of the table, no name-calling, and no shouts to “sit down and shut up,” actions that have become controversial hallmarks of his current term of office.

Instead, when Phil Hesse, a spokesman for the abutters opposed to the wind project, agreed to seek indefinite postponement of his petitioned article at town meeting, Collins said, “I congratulate you 100 percent,” and assured him that the selectmen would work with him and the others to come up with a bylaw acceptable to all.

“This is the new, improved Ken,” said Selectman David Schropfer, to much laughter.

When the meeting ended, Andrew Wells, who believed at one point that Collins had referred to him as “dingbat” during an earlier public meeting, went up to him and shook his hand. Collins’s “dingbat” comment was actually directed to another opponent of the wind project, not to him, Wells said.

— M.M.