Those curious about the eventual fate of the Mayview State Hospital property will have to wait another month.

The state task force studying the issue cancelled the meeting it had scheduled for tonight, and is withholding its draft report to await more information.

"We are expecting the final appraisal and land survey in June," State Sen. John Pippy, R-Moon, said Monday. "Originally we didn't know when that was going to come back. Since we're going to have it, it seemed wise to wait for it."

The state, as part of its program to decentralize mental health care, closed the hospital at the end of the year. Mr. Pippy is co-chair of the task force, which is exploring the best use of the 335-acre site on Chartiers Creek in South Fayette.

The process has not been free of controversy. Advocates have staged rallies at task force meetings, calling for a sale at the highest possible price with the proceeds going toward mental health care.

Others have been sounding a cautionary note, pointing out that slopes and wetlands limit the buildable space to about 80 acres, noting that access on Mayview Road would limit development for major business or commercial use and saying that the roughly 30 buildings will have serious asbestos issues in demolition or reuse.

South Fayette commissioners recently changed the property's zoning to a newly created designation for recreational use, which would include use as a public park, low-density residential or agriculatural use or such commercial recreation use as a golf course.

The township is interested in acquiring the upper part of the property -- west of Mayview Road, up a steep slope -- and adding it to the adjacent Fairview Park.

Some of the hospital buildings are more than a century old, and many are in poor condition, ill-suited for reuse. Those dating from the middle of the 20th Century are laden with asbestos, as are most buildings from the era. It will have to be safely removed whether they are renovated or demolished.

Mr. Pippy said the task force essentially agrees with the goals of the mental health advocates.

"We've been working with them closely over the last couple of months," he said. "We want to make sure that as much money comes from this as possible, and that it goes to mental health care."

But it's not likely to be tens of millions, as advocates would like. "I don't think people have taken fully into account the cost of demolition," Mr. Pippy said.

The task force commissioned the appraisal in March; the contract called for an assessment of the land's value at its highest possible use, regardless of zoning.

Having it should lend some clarity to the draft report, which Mr. Pippy described as "essentially an attempt to summarize most of the notes we've taken at the various hearings" held about the land's use.

The task force announced several weeks ago that it would post the report on its Web site about a week prior to tonight's meeting. But when it cancelled the meeting, it also cancelled plans to post the report.

"There won't be anything in there that's new," Mr. Pippy said. "It's all the stuff people have been hearing talk about. But it seemed prudent to wait for the appraisal."