BANGOR – A committee studying a potential redevelopment of Bass Park on Wednesday heard preliminary plans for the area, which officials here hope will eventually house a new $30 million auditorium.

The Special Committee for the Future of the Auditorium for months has been studying potential reuses for the west-side site, which includes the Bangor Auditorium and Civic Center, a harness racing track and a nearby 27-hole golf course.

The future of the complex became somewhat uncertain late last year when the City Council voted to either secure enough money to build a new auditorium or close the existing facility by 2004.

While three of the four options presented to the committee keep the auditorium on the Main Street site, one option would move the facility to the city’s outskirts. While that option is being considered, some on the committee frowned on such a proposal, which they said would sever any potential ties to the city’s developing waterfront and commercial downtown.

“I know where it should be, and that’s exactly where it is now,” said committee member Drew Sachs of the Main Street site.

The committee’s consultant, too, said the downtown location would likely prove the best spot, but the cost could prove a barrier.

“The days of locating these things out in a field somewhere are over,” said consultant Sam Coplon of Bar Harbor. “But these are real dollars we’re talking about here, and they’re not small dollars.”

With the City Council refusing to raise property taxes to fund the entire cost of the auditorium – high-end estimates for which reach $40 million – just how the city would pay for what would be its largest capital project ever remained uncertain Wednesday.

Under the consultant’s first option, some of that expense could come from attaching a parking deck to the auditorium in order to leave enough room for the Bangor Raceway, which has operated on the site since 1883.

A second option would feature only ground-level parking at the auditorium – at about one-tenth of the cost – but eliminate the racetrack.

At an earlier meeting, the City Council asked that the harness racing track stay put for now because of the uncertainty of the industry and the potential for the Bangor Raceway to become a major center should Scarborough Downs close or video gambling be legalized, Coplon said.

A third option would keep the auditorium on the site but feature an expansion of the city’s golf course to 36 holes. The third option would also eliminate the racetrack.

For the three proposals, Coplon recommended that the main entrance to the complex be moved from Main Street to Buck Street.

A fourth proposal would move the auditorium elsewhere and replace it with a soccer complex and a modernized harness racing facility.

But just as the layout of the site is far from final, so is the makeup of the proposed auditorium, the size of which ranges from 3,500 seats to 12,000 seats, and the scope of which ranges from a $9 million expansion to a $40 million replacement.

The current auditorium, built in 1954, has seating for about 6,000 people, but has become a maintenance nightmare, according to city officials.

Building a larger facility would depend on whether the city could secure an anchor tenant, such as the University of Maine, committee members said.