CAMDEN – The Select Board pledged to keep the cost of a new police station at $2 million, voting Monday night to cap the expenditure if voters approve the project.

The proposed new building project is on the June 11 town ballot in the form of a question that, if approved, authorizes the town to borrow up to $2.55 million to complete the new station. But the talk around town has been that the project is doomed to defeat.

Parker Laite Sr., vice chairman of the committee that has developed plans for the building, told the Select Board on Monday that his group has received public feedback that the project was “too big, too expensive,” and would not win support.

“Defeat of this measure would be a serious setback for everybody, especially the town,” Laite said.

In an effort to win over residents, the committee went back to the drawing board late last week and agreed to scale back the plans. Instead of a 9,200-square-foot, two-story building, the committee believes a 7,200-square-foot, single-story version will work, and cut construction costs by $500,000.

The Police Department now is housed in a rear wing of the ground floor of the town-owned Camden Opera House. There has been little disagreement that the department’s offices are inadequate, with no private space for interviews or for storing evidence.

But winning voter approval to pay for a new building has been difficult. Several times in recent years, proposals have been defeated. The most recent proposal to lose at the ballot booth was a plan to build a combination police and fire station.

The vote next week does not commit the town to a specific plan for the building, but an architectural firm has developed drawings and floor plans. One part of the plan that has not changed is the town’s commitment to building the new station on town-owned land on Washington Street, where the Fire Department is now located.

Laite told the board his committee wanted a strong endorsement for capping the total expenditure at $2 million, “and not a penny more.”

Select Board member Dave Miramant said the board might not have given the committee enough oversight.

A combined police-fire station discussed in the fall would have cost $5.8 million, he reminded committee members, suggesting the board should have tried to influence the committee to keep costs down.

Board member John French asked Town Attorney Terry Calderwood if the board could legally limit expenditures to $2 million if voters approve the $2.55 million request. He also asked if the town was obligated to build the structure shown in drawings at earlier public hearings.

Calderwood said the wording of the article gives the town the authority to borrow up to $2.55 million, but it is under no obligation to borrow or spend the full amount. And the drawings are not referenced in the article voters will consider, he said.

Board member Susan Dorr asked if the cost savings projected by the committee would come to fruition. Committee members said by building a full basement and locating some of the department’s functions there, the cost of windows and siding could be reduced.

Board member Paul Cartwright said he would support the measure capping the cost at $2 million, while also promising the public that the board would carefully review the plans for the building as they are developed. “The important thing here is to move ahead with this project,” he said. “No matter what we do, the cost is only going to go up.”

The board voted unanimously to approve a resolution capping the cost of the building at $2 million, and urging residents to vote in favor of the project.

Before the meeting, Police Chief Phil Roberts said the committee’s original charge was to plan for a building that would serve the town for 30 to 50 years. The scaled-back version, which moves locker and evidence rooms to the basement, may not be adequate for decades, he conceded, but it would be an improvement over current conditions.