Ward 7 Alderman Robert Trane, though he championed the residents' efforts to weigh in on the future of the school, said that he believes "a community center is not feasible anymore." By Ashley Taylor As city officials examine options for the Powder House Community School site, neighborhood residents at a community meeting last week expressed concerns with the process. "It just seems like the whole process is backwards, trying to rezone the property and then decide what to do with the building," said city activist Barry Rafkind. "If you don't know what you want to do with it, how do you know how you want to zone the property?" About 70 residents met Wednesday to discuss visions for reusing the Powder House Community School building, which the city closed in 2003 and has been vacant since 2005.

A committee of five residents organized the meeting. The committee formed in December, after the city publicized its intentions to rezone and sell the Powder House Community School, following the advice of a consulting company it hired to analyze potential ways to reuse the school.

The meeting organizers asked the attendees what they thought of the city's plans for the Powder House Community School. Ideas ranged from paving over the property until Somerville could afford to build on it to selling the property to "good developers" who might use the property to benefit the community.

The option no one favored was the one that the consultants recommended: selling the property to condominium developers.

Resident Michael Panis suggested demolishing the building and paving it over, an option he said would let the city keep the land and shed the costs of maintaining a vacant building while avoiding the costs of constructing a new one. "In the future, when we have better funds, then maybe we can think about doing something a bit nicer," he said.

Others hoped that the property would be used for affordable family housing, rather than one-bedroom units or condominiums. Anita Harris said that "the schools are getting very light with kids, because people can't afford to live here any longer." Mary Regan, a member of the Affordable Housing Organizing Committee, said affordable housing might bring more children to the neighborhood.

At two public meetings about reusing the Powder House School last spring, residents urged the city to turn the building into a community center. At this meeting, the community center idea got less attention.

Several residents mentioned that they thought a community center might be impossible to fund at the moment. Ward 7 Alderman Robert Trane, though he championed the residents' efforts to weigh in on the future of the school, said that he believes "a community center is not feasible anymore."

Ward 6 Alderman Rebekah Gewirtz, however, said that if citizens want a community center, the idea should stay on the table.

In December, the Board of Aldermen received a real estate analysis from the consultants Concord Square Planning and Development Inc. That report considered several possible reuses for the Powder House Community School and determined that it would cost $20.5 million in capital plus $1.86 million in annual costs to renovate the existing building for municipal office use, whereas it could make money both from the initial sale and from property taxes by selling the property for office or residential use.

The report said the city's most profitable option would be to sell the property to a condominium developer. Because there is currently not a market for building condos here, the report says, the city would most likely sell the property to a rental developer with plans to convert the property to condos when the market would allow it.

Aldermen at the meeting said that it would probably take a year to rezone the property, a process that requires public meetings and three votes by aldermen.

On Wednesday morning, the five people who organized the community meeting met with Mayor Joseph A. Curtatone. According to Rachel Heller, one of the meeting organizers, the Mayor plans to hold focus groups during the rezoning process. Once the rezoning is done, a reuse committee, including community members, will help determine what to do with the property, she said.