Downtown library plan assailed for size

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

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The battle over whether to build East Baton Rouge Parish’s new main library in downtown is long over, but efforts to double the size of the downtown branch are drawing fire.

A group of activists called Citizens for Main Library Independence are concerned that plans for a new main library at Independence Park may have been downsized in order to help build a 62,000-square-foot downtown library.

Library officials deny that the projects are related. They claim rising construction costs and the addition of a new project, a library branch for the eastern part of the parish, have reduced the size of the proposed main library.

In an e-mail sent out last week, the Citizens for Main Library Independence urged people to turn out for a public forum from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday at the Main Library at 7711 Goodwood Blvd. to protest the downsizing of the proposed new main library.

John Berry, president of the Citizens for Library Independence, said library officials started out talking about the need for a 200,000-square-foot main library downtown, but later scaled those plans down to 150,000 square feet due to rising costs in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and lot size.

But the push to move the library downtown generated plenty of controversy, and Mayor-President Kip Holden finally intervened and persuaded the board to keep the main library at Independence Park.

Berry noted that plans for the new main library shrank after its proposed location was changed from downtown to Independence Park.

Initial plans for the new main library at Independence Park called for three floors of 40,000 square feet each.

But that was later downsized to two floors of 43,000 square feet and a third floor that totals 13,562 square feet, Berry said.

Berry said the third floor needs to be built out as part of the initial construction to make room for a genealogy section and administration offices that some library officials want to move downtown.

“We believe that the Library Board of Control may be trying to save those public tax dollars for an as yet vaguely defined downtown library,” Berry said.

“No one has yet specified whether it is to be a rebuild of the current River Center Branch or whether it is to be a new building, or, most importantly, how much it is expected to cost,” Berry added.

Berry also pointed out that the River Center Branch is in good physical shape and is already greatly overbuilt, given its low number of patrons and its low circulation.