Meeting in the kitchen of the town's Multi-service Center Thursday because it was the only available space, members of the Westfield RFP Review and Recommendation Committee, along with the Board of Selectmen, determined the final ingredients in their recipe for a successful senior housing project.

Formed in February, the committee was charged with making suggestions to the Selectmen for a request for proposal, or RFP, for the construction of affordable senior housing on the West Wareham property. It had an RFP from 2009 to work from.

The proposal to construct the housing on the 77-acre Westfield property was overwhelmingly approved by Town Meeting in October.

Among the changes, the new RFP asks developers to construct a minimum of 175 units and no more than 280 units, increased from 150 to 200 units. All units will qualify as affordable housing under state 40B regulations, said Westfield RFP Committee Chair William Heaney. The increased number of units would help Wareham meet a required quota of affordable housing set by the state.

The chosen developer will also be required to repair two existing baseball fields on the property and construct soccer and football fields.

The Selectmen helped tweak the document on Thursday and will complete a final review and vote to approve it before handing it off to Town Administrator Mark Andrews. Andrews will review the RFP with Town Counsel and then put the project out to bid.

The Board of Selectmen commended the committee for its work.

"People don't realize how remarkable this is," Selectman Steve Holmes said after the meeting. He was filling in as chairman of the Selectmen because Walter Cruz was absent.

Westfield was often a topic of contentious debate among residents. Before the project was approved in October, it was sent to further study twice and rejected twice at previous Town Meetings. "It's not always about the Hatfields and the McCoys," Holmes continued. "We do work together."

The Westfield RFP Committee will reconvene when the developers' bids arrive and will work with the Board of Selectmen to review them.