Waterford — State officials and consultants presented their plan Wednesday to conduct an environmental impact assessment of the various designs for a state park on the Seaside property.

The Departments of Energy and Environmental Protection and Administrative Services are collecting input from neighbors and members of the public as they prepare to turn over the task of evaluating the environmental impacts of turning Seaside into a state park to private consultants.

At a public hearing in Waterford's Town Hall, state officials and representatives from GZA GeoEnvironmental Inc., the firm that will conduct the environmental assesment, heard comments from several Waterford residents and others interested in the future use of the mostly abandoned property.

Most spoke in opposition to the state's current preferred plan for the property, which would redevelop the historic buildings at Seaside — once used as a tuberculosis hospital and a center for people with developmental disabilities — into a privately run, 100-room hotel surrounded by public park land and with access to the Long Island sound.

"It's embedded so deep into the residential neighborhood that ... our houses are literally in the backyard of Seaside," said Kathleen Jacques, a neighbor of the property who has long opposed commercial development of the sanatorium property. "There are no buffers if you utilize those buildings."

The lodge plan would keep the property's four biggest buildings, the site of the former tuberculosis hospital designed by renowned architect Cass Gilbert in the early 1930s, intact.

In a report released in May, state officials said the buildings are run-down but could be restored.

GZA will consider the hotel plan in its environmental impact evaluation over the next several months, in addition to other options for the state park that the state presented in a master plan last year.

Those options could include demolishing the buildings and prioritizing the natural environment and wildlife, or a passive park model with open lawns and tree groves.

GZA's environmental assessment will consider the impacts that each option could have on factors such as traffic, wetlands, light and wildlife in addition to the neighboring residential neighborhoods.

Several speakers Wednesday spoke in favor of demolishing the buildings and instead developing a park that could remain a natural habitat for the wildlife that live there or a research facility.

Others expressed concern that the state government would not be able to afford the cost of redeveloping the aging buildings into a hotel.

GZA Senior Environmental Planner Stephen Lecco said his firm will take comments voiced at Wednesday's meeting, as well as those submitted by email or mail to DEEP, into account as it develops the environmental report.

The report will take several months to complete and then will be subject to a 45-day public comment period once it is published.

Members of the public can submit their comments on the environmental impact of the state's master plan for Seaside until Sept. 1 by emailing deep.seasideEIE@ct.gov or sending a letter to David A. Kalafa, DEEP's policy development coordinator, at 79 Elm St., Hartford, CT 06106-5127.

m.shanahan@theday.com