GRANBY — The future of the West Street Building, once an elementary school for the town’s youngest students, remains unclear after residents voted against appropriating $10 million to renovate the building into municipal offices and a new Council on Aging.

During a special Town Meeting on Tuesday, residents debated for two hours as to whether a single building for all municipal offices is best for the town’s future, or if the $15.7 million price tag to renovate 22,000 square feet of the 44,000-square-foot building was too high a price tag.

Many residents against the project expressed discontent not just with the cost, but also that the project’s price tripled from original estimate of $5.6 million, mostly due to unforeseen costs with the building’s space configuration, HVAC system and electrical system.

“From what I can see, you’re trying to put lipstick on a pig here,” resident Nancy Hampshire said.

Ultimately, the project was voted down 161 to 90.

However, residents will vote again on the project during May 19 elections, only this time the question will consider a Proposition 2½ debt exclusion to fund project. If the vote passes, the Select Board can consider sending the project back to Town Meeting.

For a $10 million bond, the owner of a house assessed at $350,000 will pay between $236 and $260 more in property taxes a year for 25 years.

Residents on Tuesday did approve spending $3 million to demolish the West Street Building. The Select Board also could sell the building, but Select Board Chair Crystal Dufresne said the board has not discussed that option.

Those who spoke in favor of the project explained that this is one of the few projects that considers future growth of Granby, and that it’s much easier to conduct business in a town when all the municipal offices are under one roof. Right now, Granby’s town offices are divided between the Annex, the Council on Aging Building and Carnegie Library. The lease for the Annex expires in June, and if the town decides to stay in the building, rent will increase from $2,200 to $4,400 a month.

“Our town offices, for lack of a better term, are an embarrassment,” resident Chris Pronovost said. “It’s something that we do finally have to rectify. No one wants to raise their own taxes, but our seniors deserve better.”

According to a schematic design of the renovations provided by the West Street Building Committee, the 22,000 square feet of space to be renovated would include 12,900 square feet of offices for the town clerk, Assessment Department, Building Department, Collection Department, town administrator, municipal committee meeting rooms and shared space for the Board of Health, Planning Board and Conservation Commission. The remaining 9,400 square feet would be for the Council on Aging’s private offices, kitchen, gymnasium and shared public space.

“We as the committee were so heartbroken when presented with the cost,” West Street Committee member Micheline Turgeon said. “We thought hard about past failed opportunities, current needs and thought about our future needs. We hope you see this renovation as an investment for the future of Granby.”

The 22,000 square feet on the upper level of the building would remain unoccupied, but the project includes abatement and window replacement to ready the space for future growth.

Turgeon explained that the cost tripled after the residents voted to spend $5.6 million on the renovations at a special Town Meeting in December because of unexpected costs later revealed through more in-depth studies of the building. The amount of renovated space increased 30% after speaking with department heads about storage and work space requirements. The studies revealed that the building’s ventilation, heating and cooling systems did not comply with Massachusetts’s current building codes, and replacing them would not only require electrical upgrades to support the new systems, but tripped the threshold for American Disability Act compliance, Turgeon said.

“This cost is too much for what we’re getting, it’s not going to be worth it,” Finance Committee Chair John Libera said.

The Finance Committee voted against supporting the project, despite acknowledging that it is beneficial for the town to have one building for all its offices. Libera, however, explains that Granby is a small town that has not seen population growth over the last 40 years, so building for future growth is unnecessary.

“Maybe we need to go back and rethink about what’s necessary to do business with the town. Maybe it’s not necessary that the offices all be together,” he said.

Yet residents disagreed. Many claimed the project was an opportunity to stop “kicking the can down the road” and provide the town a tangible and effective solution for a townwide problem.

‘I’ve been here for 75 years. Granby has always taken (an approach of) fix the problem that we have today, build for what we need today, not plan for Granby’s future,” resident George Randel said. “We need to plan for our future. Let’s not do it with a backwards mentally approach.”

Staff writer Emilee Klein can be reached at eklein@gazettenet.com.