The region eagerly waits to see whether there will be a metamorphosis of Waterford’s Crystal Mall.

Unique among large real estate parcels in southeastern Connecticut, the now-depleted mall is the property that could transform the area’s self-image from a second-tier location, resigned to being somehow less than the state’s wealthier suburbs and its larger cities, into a whole new model east of the Connecticut River.

If the aging mall property, recently sold at a bargain price to a new owner, were to be reborn as a 21st-century-style development, custom-designed to fit regional interests and carried out as a public-private development partnership, that would signal the substantial growth that is changing southeastern Connecticut for the better and for good.

What would it take? Or, viewed from the other side of the half-filled glass, what’s to stop it?

The first item on a development checklist is property. Check. The sprawling parcel is large enough for major reworking, right on a state highway, close to two interstates and equipped with utilities. True, it has the complication of a few different owners, but part of the equation would likely include profitable sales by one or more of them who are sitting on the property for now.

Smart growth, generally, and Smart Growth, the name of the development approach that typically mixes commercial, residential, recreational and professional uses in calculated configurations, have to begin with a plan. A plan starts with a vision, which requires visionaries to conceive of it. Whose vision?

As reported by Day Staff Writer Brian Hallenbeck, the successful bidder for the indoor mall itself, minus the anchor buildings that were owned by Sears and Macy’s, is a Long Island developer with a pattern of buying aging malls and not doing very much with them. A detailed concept for the Crystal Mall will either be that of the new owners -- who may envision nothing beyond keeping it open and the pipes from freezing -- or will come from a combination of the owners, interested locals and economic and planning professionals.

Waterford, as the town that hosts the property and collects its tax payments, would rightly own a major role in describing what can or cannot happen on the property.

With that role, however, comes the responsibility for leading the charge. Whatever the town has been doing quietly behind the scenes, it has not activated a publicly visible group to help formulate a plan that serves both Waterford and its neighbors.

By statute and local ordinance town commissions and boards would have their say in any case, but their roles are designed to react to what is presented to them. People with an eye for the possibilities of the property have patiently waited for the town to organize a proactive role for itself that matches the forward-thinking development that produced the mall, Waterford Commons and the town’s ultimate dominance of retail business in the county.

Under the state’s unbudgeable local property tax system, Waterford stands to benefit from whatever tax revenues are generated while assuming the costs of public services. All of the region, however, would benefit from much-needed, attractive housing, both affordable and market-rate, and more places to shop.

The region has waited a long time for a sophisticated but appropriately scaled mixed-use development; some ideas, including a bad one in Groton, have ultimately withered away. Meanwhile, manufacturing jobs keep coming to the region, New London’s downtown has a new vitality and a new industry is re-purposing the deep-water port.

Like a chrysalis, the mall is poised for a transformation. The property is not pristine woodland, does not require knocking down a historic tree or stealing the habitat of any critter. The infrastructure was built to move traffic in, out and past with efficiency. It would easily accommodate more public transit as well.

Waterford, by rights the ball is in your court. But if the town does not want the admittedly significant burden of leading for change, it should ask the Southeastern Council of Governments or even the state Department of Economic and Community Development to take the reins.

I expect the townspeople will prefer to keep the lead in transforming the mall, but it is time to demonstrate to the new property owners what the public wants to see and how earnestly they intend to push for it.

Lisa McGinley is a member of The Day Editorial Board.