LONGMEADOW – The town is anticipated to weigh the pros and cons of four potential sites for a new Adult Center after recently receiving a feasibility study from Springfield-based Dietz & Company Architects.

Town Manager Stephen Crane told Reminder Publications the sites included in the study are the existing location at Greenwood Park and three areas in Turner Park.

The study lists several advantages to building at Greenwood Park, including the cost of construction – it’s the least expensive of the four to develop – as well as other benefits such as its proximity to the center of town, it’s the most environmentally sensitive solution, and developing this site would allow the Turner Park sites to remain undisturbed.

The feasibility study also notes disadvantages for the current site, such as the need to relocate the existing Adult Center operations to a temporary site, the potential loss of one existing baseball field due to additional development, limitations for future building and parking expansions, a need to work within the existing masonry wall room configuration, disruptions caused by nearby day care and summer care programs, and hazardous materials that exist at the current site.

He said if the current site were chosen, the entire building would also have to undergo renovations for code compliances, such as Americans with Disabilities Act requirements.

Major changes to the configuration of the day care rooms are not part of the project, he noted.

The Greenwood Center was also listed as one of the top sites for a proposed Hampden County Regional Emergency Communications Center, which could include the communities of Hampden, Wilbraham, Longmeadow, East Longmeadow, and Ludlow.

Crane said the town would be looking at the viability of the site for the regional dispatch center around the same time as making a decision about a site for a new Adult Center.

If any of the three sites at Turner Park were chosen the landscape of the area would likely change, he said.

“We would not disrupt any playing fields necessarily, but what is really a natural area would have some development in it,” he added.

According to the study, the first of the three Turner Park sites has the lowest construction cost and is the most accessible of the Turner Park locations in regards to public activities. The only drawback cited for this location is its proximity to the existing baseball fields, which could include increased traffic on the access drive and shared parking spaces.

The second Turner Park site would have a scenic lakeside view, but expansion is limited due to the small size of the site and a 100-foot wetland buffer. Other cons for the site include potential resistance from adjacent neighborhood homes, and the location may be considered an isolated building site.

The final Turner Park location has great expansion potential and convenient access, but costs the most out of the four sites to develop and could also be perceived as an isolated building site.

Crane said he believes the Turner Park sites would fall under Article 97 of the Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs Land Disposition Policy, which would require a unanimous vote by the Park Board and a two-thirds approval from Town Meeting and the state legislature to be developed due the land’s status as park acreage.

One of the potential sites for a new Department of Public Works (DPW) facility – Wolf Swamp Fields – also falls under the Article 97 designation.

“That’s not a barrier in doing things,” Crane said. “Like the DPW, whether this gets developed at Greenwood or at Turner Park or some other site that we haven’t settled on, we are going to look for lineages with other issues that could be solved or helped through the project.”

He continued, “For example, the access of parking at Turner Park isn’t great because it’s a dirt road. If we did this project there we could potentially enhance the driveway and parking similarly to Wolf Swamp Fields.”

He said the Town Manager’s Adult Center Task Force would review the sites and likely make a top site recommendation to the Select Board sometime before the end of the month.

“There are funds remaining in the Town Meeting appropriation, so the Select Board will potentially choose a site to do some further design work on,” Crane noted. “In the meantime, members of the Council on Aging and other interested parties have had discussions about initiating a capital campaign.”

He added next steps toward starting a capital campaign to help fund the project would include possibly retaining the services of a fundraiser.

“I’d imagine there would potentially be a capital campaign committee set up to lead the effort to explore fundraising for this project,” he explained.

According to the study, the Pioneer Valley Planning Commission had previously identified a list of necessary criteria for a new Adult Center, which includes 12,000 to 15,000 square feet of space, 100 to 150 parking spaces, the potential for future expansion for the building and parking, a centralized entrance, a program based design and functionality, and 3,000 to 4,000 square feet of multi-purpose space.

Crane said the current Adult Center is 11,250 square feet.

To view the complete feasibility study visit www.longmeadow.org/DocumentCenter/View/1911.