North Stonington — After a years-long process, the North Stonington Emergency Services Building Committee Monday night approved a final layout plan for the new metal building by a vote of 6-1.

Chairman Mark Perkins was absent.

Only Brian Elias, president of the North Stonington Ambulance Association, voted against the plan, citing its lack of an emergency operations center conference room.

"My concern is that, when we brought (the plan) to the town, we said in our needs assessment that an (emergency operations center) was part of it," Elias said, adding that he's not sure one can fit in the plan's multipurpose room. "To put it out there without that in place makes me uncomfortable."

The plan, designed by the architectural firm of Silver/Petrucelli and Associates with input from town officials and residents, features three potential alterations that would allow for savings should the final project cost exceed the approximately $6 million budget.

Those changes include going from a five-bay to a four-bay firehouse, shrinking the living quarters and removing canopies from the building's exterior.

Committee member Bob Shabunia explained that the bidding sheets from contractors should come back with a base bidding price, as well as the separate price of each of the deductions.

"We are going to have the option of deciding which of those deduct alternates, if any, we want to take advantage of and accept," Shabunia said. "We have to make that decision at the time all these bids come in."

The Monday night meeting acted as the final chance for those involved to make changes to the layout. Ultimately, the committee made only two.

One, moving a door from one side of an office space to another, was minor.

The other, however, stemmed from the issue some have taken with the metal building.

"The plans that the town approved back (in 2013) are nothing compared to what I'm seeing right here," said resident Gordon Coats, referring to a July 2013 referendum. "Don't the townspeople need to know this?"

Shortly before the referendum, town officials hosted a special meeting in which they showed residents renderings of a traditional, partly brick building complete with a clock tower. Marking each was a tag that read "not final rendering design concepts (2008)."

"What the town approved or was looking at was conceptual plans," said committee Vice Chairman Joe Cassata. "It's like anything else ... when you start getting into the nuts and bolts of it and try to keep it in budget, things change."

Among those changes were a decreased number of stories and the change from a conventional to a metal building, largely because of increasing construction costs.

The 2013 referendum asked only if the town should designate $6.36 million for "costs related to the design and construction" of the complex. It made no mention of whether the building would be traditional or metal.

Still, Coats said he knows several others who "disagree with what's going on here."

"I guarantee you if this was brought up to a town meeting again to vote on, it would get declined," he said.

As a compromise, committee members decided to add a provision that permits the future builder to add aesthetic touches to the Rocky Hollow Road-Route 2 corner of the building, as long as they don't exceed $100,000.

"The big idea was not to have a warehouse-looking firehouse or emergency services center," Cassata said after the meeting. "It's central to the whole town, so we're trying to make it presentable."

He encouraged all residents with questions to ask him or other committee members and reiterated that the metal building was chosen because of budget constraints.

Cassata said Monday night's approval will allow the committee, once bids come back, to better understand what the project is actually going to cost instead of just working with estimates.

l.boyle@theday.com

Twitter: @LindsayABoyle