ARDMORE, Okla. (KTEN) — The Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs outlined its plan for a new Veterans Center in Ardmore at a special meeting Thursday night.

The facility would be built on a 270-acre site on the north end of city limits adjacent to Refinery Road and Indian Hills Road.

The biggest concern raised by Ardmore taxpayers is the new center's planned entrance on Refinery Road, parallel to Oakland Court.

"We'll continue discussions with the city to do traffic studies or whatever we need to do to see if there are things on our end that need to be done, or if the city needs to upgrade anything out there," said ODVA Deputy Director Shawn Kirkland. "We want to be good neighbors. We want to take care of the roads. We want to do what we can. We also want to make sure that our veterans and our employees traveling out there are safe, too."

The new center will feature 231 beds in a 250,000 square foot facility. The ODVA said there are no pan to expand the center beyond that. The construction timetable is two-and-a-half years once grants are approved and designs are complete.

As for the current Ardmore Veterans Home on South Commerce — which dates back to 1910 as a home for Civil War veterans — it'll still serve some purpose.

"Of course we have the cemetery that sits behind that old facility now," Kirkland said. "The plans would be to keep that original old structure, and then the rest of the facility would probably be demolished at some point."

The next steps in the process will be a rezoning vote by the Ardmore City Commission on May 22.