“Every block has three or four homes that are livable and the rest are abandoned,” said Elinor Mount-Simmons, the president of the Hillside Organization of Laborers for Apalachicola, a community group. “It would be great if the Hill could come alive again as it once was.”

Even so, Ms. Mount-Simmons is not enthusiastic about the Brown program, which is sometimes referred to as Save Our Shotguns. Too many details remain unclear, she said.

The Denton Cove plan, by contrast, was outlined in thick contracts and bank documents as required by law. The town homes would have energy efficient appliances, a pool and a fitness center. But the development was not for people with moderate incomes, as some residents had originally been told. The county’s depressed earnings meant only the poorest would qualify to live there.

Concentrating the poor in one project was not a modern approach, said Bonnie Davis, a retired lawyer who moved to Apalachicola from Tallahassee. She and others embraced the idea that Apalachicola’s architectural past might guide the future as it had in cities like Louisville, Ky., and New Orleans, where shotgun restoration programs have been underway for years.

“When all this brouhaha came up, I, the Browns, many people said, ‘We have to be about more than no,’” Ms. Davis said.

In addition to training the local labor force in construction, Mr. Brown’s plan had a financing component. Because 33 of the lots have more than one home on them, the purchaser would buy one home to live in and a second income-producing rental unit to help pay the mortgage. But speed was important.