Around 50 people in the seaside enclave of Hull ventured out on a freezing January night to hear from town officials and a consulting firm about a plan that’s in the works to deal with a problem that’s become increasingly impossible to ignore: flooding.

The community meeting centered on a proposal under development that could mitigate flooding in the Hampton Circle neighborhood, a section of the slim peninsula town that’s ground zero for flooding. Over sliders and other finger foods on the second floor of a restaurant across the street from the ocean, officials presented ideas for new infrastructure like a tidal gate and pedestrian bridge as skeptical residents peppered them with pressing questions and anecdotes.

Before consultants from Weston & Sampson got too far along with their design pitch, though, Chris Krahforst, director of climate adaptation and conservation in Hull, stood up and added something into the mix.

Speaking gingerly, he raised the idea of addressing flooding by leaving, or “retreating” from, Hull altogether.

“Part of this is to put in the back of the minds of everyone here, that as we move into the future and into the distant future, what is this place going to be like?” Khrahforst said to a hushed room. “At the end of that road is a plan, and maybe part of that plan is a retreat.”

They were just bread crumbs, really. It was a way to get the idea into the conversation, but then move on, not wanting to linger too long on an obviously uncomfortable topic, at a meeting that had already turned contentious. But Krahforst didn’t want to pass up the chance to bring up the possibility of relocating from harm’s way at a gathering of residents in one of the most at-risk communities in the state. About two-thirds of Hull is located in a 100-year floodplain, meaning the area has a 1 percent chance of seeing a significant flood in a given year.

“What exactly do you mean by retreat?” one attendee piped in, unable to let the notion go. “Like moving our homes? Or temporarily evacuating during a storm?”

No, not quite, Krahforst explained. Retreat, more than likely, means picking up and moving altogether away from encroaching water.

As uneasy as the conversation became, that interaction is, in some ways, exactly the point.

Massachusetts is right now engaging in the most robust dialogue in state history around the concept of relocating people, homes, and communities away from places prone to flooding. In November, the Healey administration ripped the Band-Aid off and formally called on the state to establish a voluntary buyout program within three to five years once a study currently underway is completed.