Sometime in March or April, the Auburn Library will open its temporary home in the old Herr Lumber building and the King County Library System will close the main library for a year of renovations.
Everybody with a stake in the project wants to know when that day will be.
Now, with the City Council’s approval Monday of a “joint parking development agreement and option to purchase” between it and KCLS, the date might soon be known.
The City of Auburn, which leases to KCLS the property the present library sits on, insisted more than a year ago that in addition to the 60 parking stalls KCLS has at the site and those it leases from the City on the Les Gove Park campus, it must develop new parking stalls and replace any stalls lost to the expansion.
According to the agreement, KCLS will buy the old United Rentals property next door and the City will contribute $262,500 to the purchase in return for the perpetual right to use any available parking stalls. When all the necessary permits and approvals are in hand, KCLS will tear down the building to provide 20 more parking stalls.
Also, to allow for the possibility that KCLS may stop operating a public library on the site and the City terminate its lease, KCLS also agrees to grant the City an irrevocable option to purchase the parking lot built on the old United Rentals property.
“Instead of purchasing the property outright, which would have cost the City a great deal more for purchasing and development,” said Councilwoman Nancy Backus, “we are assisting the library in moving forward with their expansion to include our use of parking and right to design the entry into Les Gove from Auburn Way South. We also have the first right of refusal if they should ever sell that property, and we’ll have the ability to purchase it if we choose to do so.”
Backus added that the money was budgeted for use last year and will be rolled over to the 2011 budget.
Councilwoman Sue Singer said the agreement helps achieve a long cherished City goal.
“By my accounting, it’s been 14 years since the Council’s been interested in … trying to find a way to open up Les Gove Park from Auburn Way South,” Singer said. “I am excited that we can do it with this partnership.”
The expansion will add 5,000 square feet to the library, most noticeably in the form of a glass-paneled addition that will expand into a portion of the parking space on the east side of the building.
Among the other features will be:
• An expanded children’s area.
• A new meeting room in the northeast corner of the addition, serving as a quiet space when it is not a meeting room. When there is not a gathering in the current meeting room, it will be closed, locked and unavailable. The new meeting room will feature sliding glass doors to make it a more interactive, multi-use space.
• The relocation of bathrooms to the west side of the building and an expanded entrance way and media area in the space the restrooms now occupy.
• A quiet study area that will significantly increase the amount of seating space.
• An automated material handling system that will let patrons check in their books and get a receipt for them.
• Additional spaces for laptops and additional laptops for check out. The library will keep the same amount of fixed computers.
King County residents supported a $172 million capital bond in September 2004 to pay for the Auburn Library project among other library expansions and renovations.
