Waterford — As part of the continuing effort to gather public input in planning for a new state park at Seaside in Waterford, the public is being asked to comment on three proposed concepts by visiting the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Seaside webpage, according to a DEEP news release.

“More than 700 individuals responded to last month’s survey with thoughtful ideas for re-use of this historic property,” DEEP Deputy Commissioner Susan Whalen said in a statement. “We encourage everyone to go online now and review details of the concepts we’ve developed and then take a new survey to provide additional feedback to the state planning team.”

The three concepts put forward are: a destination park, which would include a State Park Lodge; an ecological park that emphasizes recreation and ecology features; and a passive park that would entail nearly if not all historic buildings on site being demolished.

Whalen said during a past presentation the concepts were "not set in stone" and that an online survey would ask respondents to state their preferences on individual elements of each plan.

The state planning team is made up of representatives of the Office of Policy and Management, DEEP, and the Department of Administrative Services. Sasaki Associates and Oak Park Architects LLC of Connecticut were selected to assist with a master planning process for the park.

The team received more than 700 responses to a previous survey asking respondents to state what aspects they would like to see prioritized in park planning.

Most who responded were Waterford residents. They ranked public beach access, wildlife habitat and walking/jogging paths as the most important features to maintain and protect at the park.

Respondents said their top three goals for the park were providing recreational value, protecting wildlife habitat and conserving natural resources, and preserving historic structures on the site.