YORK VILLAGE - The Board of Selectmen has given its unanimous support to a $6.475 building project to construct a new town hall at 32 Long Sands Road.

Article 67 on the May ballot asks voters to support the project, which will be funded with $1 million in existing town funds and a bond issue for the remaining $5.475 million.

The proposal itself has been met with mixed responses from the Budget Committee and local residents in recent months, but one area of consensus has seemed to exist: York's Town Hall is outdated and undersized, and there is no question about the need to address those issues.

However, whether the town-owned land, which was purchased from the prior owner of Coventry Hall in 2006, is the right location has continued to be a question raised by residents at public meetings and in letters.

For the Board of Selectmen and the Municipal Building Committee, the answer to that question is that both the time and the site are right.

On the issue of timing, concerns raised by several Town Hall employees, as well as the selectmen and members of the Municipal Building Committee, include the overcrowding at Town Hall as well as its lack of access for residents with disabilities and the inability for the building to meet current safety codes.

As members of the Municipal Building Committee wrote in support of the plan, "We believe that our committee, with the guidance of SMRT's skilled architects, has produced a plan which will provide a fully accessible and efficiently laid out building that will incorporate more town departments at one location, provide an appropriate storage vault for sensitive documents, and meet current building codes for public buildings. It will be Silver LEEDS certified for long-term high energy efficiency, and will meet the town's needs for decades. Yet, it will be small enough to retain and augment the current park-like setting of this great piece of land, further complimenting our current historic Town Green."

The plan also includes about 130 new parking spaces as well as a storm drainage system for the village.

"Looking at this list, you see a pattern of missed opportunities," Selectmen Chairman Mike Estes said when the board reviewed this year's capital requests. "If we keep pushing these projects off, we won't be able to afford them. ... It's time to get some of these off the docket so this town can move forward."

Vice Chairman Dave Marshall, who serves on the Municipal Building Committee, stressed that the right place for Town Hall is in York Village.

The approval of the town hall would, Marshall said at a recent Board of Selectmen meeting, leave a mark for the "next 100 years or so of our generation's contributions to the York community."

He described the Long Sands Road proposal as a long-awaited solution after years of failed attempts to find and approve land for a new municipal complex.

Others, however, disagree, including Coventry Hall's current owners, Melissa Murphy and Kevin Colglazier, who have offered to buy the land back from the town to keep it preserved as open space.

They, along with others who reside in the area of Long Sands Road in the center of the village, have raised questions about traffic safety and other impacts if the new facility is built on the proposed site.

Murphy is among those who have suggested the town look at renovating the existing Town Hall and other buildings in the village rather than building a new town hall, citing the character of York's existing village center as well as concerns about the municipal bond market in the current economy.

Members of the Municipal Building Committee have stated that they believe the current economic downturn will have a positive impact on the project's cost.

"In fact, savings are expected to come from today's highly competitive building industry," the committee wrote in support of the project. "...With current economic conditions, the combination of low interest rates and building costs are likely more favorable than we will see again in the future."

On the town budget side of the equation, advocates of the plan have noted that the impact will amount to about $40 per year in taxes for the average York property, with a slight decrease annually as the 20-year bond is paid.

While the full Board of Selectmen supports the proposal, the Budget Committee's preference vote was split, with Lin Napier, Steve Samborski and Rick Boardman in opposition, Mike Quinn, Greg Filias and Charles Steedman in support and David Lincoln abstaining.

Members of the public, too, have shared varied perspectives on the plan.

Former Selectman Jim Bartlett said the Comprehensive Plan clearly recommends keeping Town Hall in York Village.

"If you start to remove certain aspects of the Village that create this, that you're going to start to run the risk that you're going to drastically change the character of this town," he said at a recent public hearing.

Lincoln voiced had a different opinion.

"I think that purchasing the Coventry Hall property was a great move. It prevented the possibility of commercial development," he said, but added the current owners are willing to purchase that land and keep it as open space, and said voters need to consider whether the return on the new facility is worth the asking price. "My vote is going to be no on this, and the reason is I think it's the wrong investment."

Former Selectman Torbert Macdonald, Jr., was among those supporting the plan, referencing his neighborhood's proximity to the site.

"We're perfectly willing, as near as I can tell, to tolerate the comings and goings of the town during business hours and the occasional evening meeting," he said.

In letters to the newspaper, other residents, including Cynthia Raymond and Marie Forrest, have said there are other sites for a new town hall in York Village that would not have the same traffic implications as the Coventry Hall parcel, while others, like Anna Woodward, said the time for addressing the safety issues at Town Hall is decades overdue.

Police Chief Doug Bracy, meanwhile, has said that while he supports the will of the voters when it comes to the need for a new town hall, a new police station and other infrastructure, York has a history of missed opportunities - including the decision in the 1990s not to purchase the Marciano property at the intersection of Route 1 and Route 91 for $600,000.

At the time it was proposed, many elected officials said the project would not be able to sustain a municipal complex. It is now home to a half-dozen businesses and a hotel. On that site, Bracy said, the town could probably have addressed nearly all of its municipal and public safety needs.

"We've missed opportunities time and time again," he said, adding, "I think we've studied it to death ... Is this the best option? Maybe not, but I think it's a good option, and I look forward to discussions on police stations in the future."