Many residents are saying they are not ready to replace the iconic downtown Renton library

At last week’s meeting of the Renton City Council, we had a spirited discussion about the proposal to build a replacement downtown library at the former Big 5 Sporting Good’s site next to the Piazza. This session was covered well by the Renton Reporter in this article here . Following last week’s meeting, Council has continued to receive significant email and citizen comment about the downtown library location. A few days ago we received a 43-page petition titled “Save our Library.” The hundreds of signatures on the petition were collected from library patrons during the past week. Email comments seem to be about five-to-one against moving the library.

As I said at last week’s council meeting (and discussed in a previous blog entry here ), I think we should be patient, and gather all the facts and input we can, in making the final decision about the downtown library location. I would be happier to see us first complete the proposed new Highlands library, building it to the proposed size of 15,000 square feet (increasing it from it’s current 6000 square feet.) Once it is completed and in operation, citizens could more easily evaluate whether the size would be sufficient for downtown (which is proposed for the same square footage.) Furthermore, having the Highlands library built to full size would minimize inconvenience to residents when the downtown library is worked on, regardless of whether it was moved or renovated.

Completing the highlands library first would also give us the time to complete another critical part of the plan– what to do with the building over the river if we move the library. The mayor and council have indicated that we intend to save and re-purpose this building, but the plan is not yet developed. Since there is no use defined, no one yet knows what the upgrades would cost to support any viable new use. We’ve been told that refurbishing this building to continue its long-term use as a library would cost close to ten million dollars. A reasonable assumption is that any other use would cost nearly as much, or perhaps even more, depending on how much activity was planned.

For example, the existing library is load limited in it’s central section where it spans the river (it can handle about 60 pounds per square foot), and this central section is therefore used for low-load purposes such as tables, chairs, and computer work stations. This use generates much less load than it would as a reception hall where hundreds of people could be dancing in rhythm. Ultimately, we ought to know the proposed use and the cost of retrofitting before we commit that we will re-purpose this building.

The consequences of failing to come up with an acceptable and affordable use could be severe. If the building gets labeled as abandoned, or falls into disrepair, there could be numerous agencies (Federal government, State Fisheries, Muckleshoot Tribes, etc) pushing Renton to demolish it. And demolishing it would not be cheap– many expensive permits would be required, salmon-migration dates observed, and contractors paid. We’ll have to keep the building maintained and in some type of use, with the heat and lights on, to prevent this fate. This could take us many years. I won’t feel comfortable promising citizens that we are keeping the building until this plan, including the funding, is worked out.

The above is the header page of a 43 page petition, with up to twelve signatures per page. The petition submitters have said that they are gathering more signatures daily.

I’ve included two examples of recent emails we have received below, one in favor of moving the library, and one against.

READ MORE »