The Committee to Save St. Paul's will present its proposal for the redevelopment of the Historic St. Paul's Main Building to the community Tuesday, Oct. 24, at 7:30 p.m. in the Garden City Middle School auditorium.

The committee's proposal contains 19,000 square feet for public use in prime areas of the building on the first floor and ground level, and includes the former chapel. This space, set aside for a Community Center, Senior Center and gathering and meeting rooms, is combined with approximately 62 units of residential apartments, which will be marketed to Garden City seniors.

The committee believes that together with its professional consulting team, consisting of historic preservation, adaptive reuse and public financing experts, it has developed a practical and achievable proposal - the only one that has a chance of gaining the support of a large majority of village residents and their state legislators to secure the necessary special home rule legislation and relief from parkland designation, now restricting the disposition of the property to public use only. This solution represents the only real hope of protecting this historic monument from the wrecker's ball, committee members said.

The committee's consultants, Murray Gould of Port City Preservation LLC and Stephen Tilly of Stephen Tilly, architect, will also be attending this presentation. Please come and learn more about this proposal, which meets the village criteria - development within the existing footprint of the Historic Main Building. The committee is committed to maintaining the special park-like setting and quiet, residential character of the neighborhood, and therefore, its proposal contains no new construction for housing on the site.

The committee's presentation will include architectural drawings of the proposal's site and floor plans, and a rendering of St. Paul's preserved for the people. Join the committee in the Garden City Middle School auditorium Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m.