While it is encouraging seeing state plans to utilize the former Seaside Regional Center property moving forward, potential problems remain significant and controversy could resume.

The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection has most recently announced the hiring of a national consulting firm to study the viability and possible re-use of the historic buildings. This is of questionable value, given the exhaustive studies of the property already.

Once a valuable reminder of how our society dealt with sufferers of tuberculosis, and later the developmentally disabled, the buildings are in such poor repair, damaged by weather and lack of attention — most anything of value stripped away — that saving them is in question.

A year ago in the run-up to the 2014 election, Gov. Dannel P. Malloy dispatched preferred developer Mark Steiner and his plans to restore the buildings as condominiums. Instead, the governor announced Seaside would become a state park.

Mr. Steiner has since sued, challenging the Waterford Planning and Zoning Commission vote denying the zone change sought by his development company. He is also seeking legal standing to sue the state for dumping him after the zoning rejection.

It remains our contention that the governor should have had a better vision of how his administration planned to utilize the park before summarily canceling the contract with the developer. However, since the announcement the state has taken steps to develop a master plan, and sought public input through local hearings. Options range from doing little with the property and allowing passive recreation there, to turning it into a shoreline attraction that would provide lodging to visitors in the restored historic structures.

In a best-case scenario, the picture becomes clearer in a couple of months, the time the DEEP expects the latest study will take (please make it be the last). At that point, agency spokesman Dennis Schain said, DEEP will be ready to present a clearer picture of what the state proposes to do with the property.

Then things could get interesting. The state has to figure out how to pay for converting the property to a viable state park — cost estimates range from $3.2 million to up to $60 million, depending on the intensity of re-use. A definitive plan, as proposed to the current abstract discussion, could also reignite the type of neighborhood opposition that helped sink Mr. Steiner’s project.

In other words, the Seaside saga is likely to continue.