Whether Standish residents will vote on a proposal for a more than $8 million community center will be discussed at a Town Council workshop Aug. 26, after the question was tabled by the Town Council Tuesday.

The council discussed responses to the newly released community center report Tuesday, with some councilors advocating for a referendum vote on the $8 million bond and other councilors hoping to disband the committee and not bring the question to voters.

The report, with plans for a 37,000-square-foot structure with a total projected cost of more than $8.67 million, came after more than four years of work from the Community Building Development and Planning Committee, which includes council, recreation department and citizen representatives.

If approved, residents’ taxes on a $250,000 home could increase $112.50 for a 30-year bond or $140 for a 20-year bond.

The committee’s recommendations for the Town Council, which committee chairman Paul Mosley read at the meeting, included reconsidering use of the Moody Road site, authorizing a mitigation study for a town-owned parcel on Boundary Road, accepting and approving the design proposal and submitting a referendum question to residents for a bond not to exceed $8 million.

One of the goals of building the community center is to create a centralized space for recreation programs.

“We have a lot going on and we’re spread out all over the place,” said Recreation Director Linda Brooks Aug. 6, adding that it’s a challenge for town recreation programs to work around the schedules of the owners of the facilities they use.

For example, the recreation program uses Edna Libby and George E. Jack schools for its summer children’s recreation programs, but they need to end in the first week of August because the schools need the space back. Brooks said available facilities restrict the potential of the recreation programs.

Two councilors spoke against the proposal. “I have objections to stating that we’re accepting it, connoting that we’re approving it,” Councilor Louis Stack said.

Council Chairman Wayne Newbegin, who served for the past year on the Community Center Building Committee was adamant in his response.

“I have no intention of putting this to referendum,” he said.

The center would include a pool, weight and fitness room, gymnasium, all-purpose room, food pantry, kitchen and locker rooms.

The committee decided early in the process that a pool and fitness center would be necessary to make the center self-supporting, estimating that the center could become financially self-sustaining within five years, not taking into account the initial debt of $8 million.

The Community Center Building Committee was appointed by the council in May 2003. Members started their work by conducting a telephone and Internet survey of 450 Standish residents. Finding that 92 percent of responders wanted a community center, the Town Council charged a new committee in April 2004 with recommending a location, conceptual plan and estimated costs.

After considering several other possible locations for the community center, the committee recommended 8.5 acres on the corner of Moody and Northeast roads. In June 2006 residents approved buying the land for $325,000.

The committee eventually found the site to be less than ideal due to vernal pools, seasonal bodies of water protected by state law since May 2007. Committee members met with the Maine Department of Environmental Protection, the Army Corps of Engineers and U.S. Fish and Wildlife in 2007. These agencies told the committee that the vernal pools were a serious problem, requiring extreme setbacks, mitigation or the purchase of land adjacent to the site.

In January 2008 the Town Council voted 4-3 to abandon the site.

“The committee was told to abandon that site because of vernal pools,” Newbegin said Aug. 6. Despite the vote, the committee chose to move forward and submit a plan based on the Moody Road site.

“There are ways around the vernal pools,” committee member Larry Simpson countered, also on Aug. 6, pointing to the potential of mitigation or setting aside other land for conservation in exchange for developing the Moody Road site.

Councilors disagreed on the next step after receiving the report. While some supported disbanding the committee, others wanted to keep the committee going and send the bond question to a referendum vote.

Stack supported the committee disbanding and didn’t support bringing the plan to a referendum vote.

Councilor Terry Christy disagreed, saying he thought the committee should follow through with the referendum vote so residents could approve or turn down the proposal. A vote would settle the issue forever, Christy said.

Christy suggested tabling the issue to the next workshop meeting on Aug. 26. The motion to table was successful, with Stack and Newbegin in opposition.

Simpson thanked the council for tabling the issue, adding that $400,000 has already been spent on the process and he hoped the committee would remain in place to help the question through a referendum and amend it in case it fails.

“The bottom line is we want the citizens to vote for it,” Simpson said.