SCARBOROUGH — The Town Council will move ahead with a plan for an entirely new intermediate school, rather than constructing an addition and retaining some of the existing building for a community center.

The council reached the decision by consensus Wednesday night, said Judith Roy, chair of the panel.

Some members of the community wanted to leave some of Wentworth Intermediate School intact for use as a community center, which Scarborough lacks, Roy said. Others said that might constrict plans for the replacement school and also would likely require mitigating the impact on wetlands on part of the school property, which would have added about $500,000 to the cost of the project.

Roy said she favored the community center plan, because teenagers and senior citizens have few places to go in the town, but abides by the council’s informal decision.

Wentworth has been plagued for years by concerns over air quallty. It’s also overcrowded, with five trailer classrooms for the third-, fourth- and fifth-graders who attend school there, Roy said. The town also had to remove asbestos recently and replace windows, Roy said.

Town officials are still developing plans to replace the 48-year-old school and have yet to come up with a price tag. A proposal for a new school in 2006, with the cost pegged at $38.5 million, was rejected by voters. Some say a companion measure for $16.5 million in middle school renovations – also rejected – might have doomed both projects because of the combined cost of $55 million.