Perkins library timeline laid out

• By SCOTT DYER
• Advocate staff writer
• Published: May 16, 2008 - Page: 1B - UPDATED: 12:05 a.m.

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Developer Tommy Spinosa laid out a timeline Thursday that calls for construction to begin on a 12,000-square-foot library in his Rouzan mixed-use development to begin by the end of the year.

Last month, Library Board members Stan Bardwell and Don Browning expressed concern about the apparent lack of progress of the proposed Rouzan traditional neighborhood development, where Spinosa is donating land for a new library.

But Spinosa made it clear Thursday he’s ready to move on the 119-acre project on Perkins Road near College Drive.

Spinosa said he plans to submit a detailed plan on the project in July and hopes to have approval from the Planning Commission in August.

If all goes well, the city-parish could begin construction on the new library in December, Spinosa said.

Spinosa said he and his staff have identified a site for the new library that would be in Rouzan’s Village Center just off Perkins Road.

Spinosa also said his staff has developed a preliminary parking plan that would provide 600 parking spots within 400 feet of the proposed library.

The parking spots would be shared with a church and other developments that are slated to be built within Rouzan.

Spinosa said he’s hiring a professional parking consultant to tweak the parking plan to assure there is plenty of parking at the Rouzan Village Center.

Last month, Bardwell and Browning questioned whether the board should abandon the Rouzan site. They noted the Library Board had shelved plans to build a new library to serve the south Baton Rouge area on a 6-acre tract of donated land on Burbank Drive in order to negotiate with Spinosa.

With the donated property on Bubank in hand, Browning said the Library Board should have started construction on the Burbank site as soon as the library property tax renewal passed in 2005.

Neither Bardwell nor Browning was on the Library Board when the decision was made to put the Burbank site on hold and to negotiate with Spinosa.

In January, the Metro Council gave Spinosa the green light to develop 750 residential units and 100,000 square feet of commercial space on the 119-acre Rouzan tract on Perkins near College Drive.