New York-based Utopia Studios hopes to build a development that would include movie studios, theme parks, a performing arts college and hotels on the site of the former Norwich Hospital. The next step for the plan is an advisory committee vote next Wednesday.

Its proponents want to see more jobs and a reduction in taxes, and its naysayers believe it will never happen. But next week the Utopia Studios project in Preston – a $1.6 billion movie studio and theme park – either will be off the table or will be one step closer to reality when an advisory board votes on whether to send the development agreement to referendum.

The Norwich Hospital Advisory Committee – which is comprised of town officials and residents – met Wednesday to discuss the project’s traffic plan, but likely will vote on whether to take the development agreement to a referendum at its April 19 meeting, according to First Selectman Robert Congdon. If the committee votes yes, the plan will probably be put before voters in May.

The town is fairly split on the issue, Congdon noted. The project could create thousands of jobs, but some residents believe it’s a pipe dream.

“The [opponents] don’t believe it’ll happen,” Congdon said.

New York-based Utopia hopes to build a development that would include movie studios, theme parks, a performing arts college and hotels on the site of the former Norwich Hospital.

The town spent months looking for proposals for the site. Utopia’s ultimately was deemed the most promising. A year ago, Preston voters urged the town to move forward with negotiations.

Sixty percent of the small town’s 3,400 eligible voters last April turned out to vote on the project, and voted 1,508 to 256 to allow the town to move ahead with negotiations for a development deal with Utopia.

The land on which the project would be developed is a 470-acre site located mostly in Preston, but with some of the acreage spilling over into Norwich. The boarded-up buildings that made up Norwich Hospital – a state mental health facility that closed about 10 years ago – still dot the land.

Utopia’s chairwoman is actress Cathy Moriarty. Her husband, Joseph Gentile, is the developer’s chief financial officer.

Utopia is planning a 12-year, three-phase development that would depend on local, state and federal approvals. The project would “build on existing regional assets and utilize community input to create a first-class destination resort sensitive to the town’s and the community’s historical integrity and character,” according to Utopia’s proposal.

The key points of the development are the production campus, Utopia Studios, which would include movie and television soundstages and music recording studios; Utopia Studios Theme Parks, which would be a four-day, all-year and all-weather set of five theme parks similar to Universal Studios; and Utopia School of the Arts, a performing arts college that would use some of the existing buildings on the site.

In addition, the company is planning 4,200 hotel rooms on the property in family resort hotels. A convention center resort is also a possibility, but would be developed on the Norwich portion of the property by an independent developer chosen by Utopia.

“[Utopia] is envisioned to work as an epicenter, or anchor and destination location, for the other popular tourism sites located in close proximity to our proposed development,” according to the proposal. “Currently, the site is located between the region’s two existing casinos, which cater to over 25 million visitors per year. Utopia Studios will enhance this dense, well-funded tourist market by providing a family-oriented destination location within the largest tourist attraction locale in the state of Connecticut.”