The hospital closed last April and the state owns the property but needs to get the site rezoned by the town to get a project going. Both the state's Division of Capital Asset Management, which manages the property, and town officials agree that a residential project would work best at this site but the sticking point has been the density of the project. Frank Garrison, a chairman of the Medfield State Hospital Re-Use Committee, tells GlobeSt.com that "it's an accepted wisdom that a commercial or industrial project would not work out here," specifically, he says, because of the poor road access to Route 495.

"The town," adds Garrison, "wants the least density possible." The state hired consultants who indicated that a redevelopment project would need to include 400 units to make it financially possible. But Garrison says that the town's school consultant was concerned that that kind of density would overburden the local school system. The project will be split between one- and two-bedroom units and three-bedroom condos.

Garrison says that the town would like to see 200 housing units on the site and a 100-bed extended-care facility. The state's consultant responded that a 200-bed facility would make more sense.