Over the past 20 years, four local architectural firms studied the existing library.  Their findings were that the building requires major system replacements, including HVAC, elevators, plumbing, wiring and the roof.  Additional improvements are needed to make the building suitable for contemporary and future library services.  Prior Council directives to staff, based on Library Board recommendations and the Library Foundation's announcement of a $2 million gift, were to pursue land acquisition and design.  Those actions have occurred and the Council is being asked to submit a November ballot question to Billings voters that would provide funding to construct a new library.

Although the Library staff, Board of Trustees and City Council have analyzed more than a dozen alternatives for a downtown library facility during the past 20 years, this report will review only the three most recent.

1. In 2003, the City Council retained the service of local architectural firm A & E to study options for a downtown library building. Public meetings provided opportunity for community input and a wide range of options was considered. In February 2004, A & E presented plans and cost estimates for renovation of the Library portions of the building and separate plans for renovation of the 4th floor, which housed a number of City offices. The Council determined that the cost estimate for renovating floors 1-3, the Library portion of the building, of $11,898,048, with another $1,913,008, for the 4th floor, was too expensive to consider. Although the plan did not proceed, the cost estimates have provided a basis for comparison for alternatives ever since.

2. In November 2008, Gainan's, contemplating a move from its downtown location at 502 North 30th Street, contacted the Library about the potential for the Library to move into the Gainan's building after it would be expanded and renovated. The Library retained CTA Architects to conduct a feasibility study to determine whether it would be possible in terms of space and architectural design, as well as to provide cost estimates. The study, completed May 18, 2009, determined that although it would be a tight fit, the building program needs could be met. The potential for parking, already very tight on the property, became more problematic when the adjacent City-owned Park IV garage, expected to provide significant parking for the proposed new Library building, was put on the market for sale during the time of the feasibility study. The estimated cost of the project was $10,926,785. Complex financing of the project and other factors contributed to significant public opposition to the project and the Library Board withdrew its recommendation to the City Council to proceed with the project at the Board's meeting of December 10, 2009.


3. The project recommended in this report is the result of the City Council and Library Board of Trustees jointly agreeing at the City Council meeting of December 14, 2009, that the Library Board should systematically and comprehensively develop a plan for a downtown library building. The Library Board created a Downtown Library Facility Committee, with representation from every Ward in the City and including Council Members Dick Clark and Jani McCall. The Committee, working from March 17, 2010 through September 15, 2010, developed a list of approximately 50 parcels of property in a downtown zone it identified, as well as draft site evaluation criteria. Library Consulting, of Minneapolis, conducted 317 telephone surveys and used 83 internet surveys, matching the demographics of Billings on age, geographic location, and education level, to validate the site criteria. The Committee applied the criteria to the potential site parcels, with the block that the Library is currently located on emerging as the top rated site by a wide margin.

The Library Board recommended that staff work to acquire the balance of property on the block on which the current building is located and to work with the Parmly Billings Library Foundation and an anonymous donor who had pledged a lead gift to the Foundation's capital campaign for a new building of architectural significance at the City Council Work Session of October 18, 2010. The City Council approved land exchanges with Billings Clinic and Stockman Bank at it's meeting of June 13, 2011 that complete the acquisition of the block on which the Library is located. The lead donor to the Foundation's capital campaign, at this time still preferring to remain anonymous, has paid all architectural costs through schematic design and has committed to contribute a total of $2 million to the project.

The project budget is estimated to be $18,383,684, with a maximum contribution of $13,383,684 from the sale of general obligation bonds that the voters of the City of Billings would have to authorize, and a $5,000,000 contribution from the capital campaign of the Parmly Billings Library Foundation.

The attached Resolution and Ballot Language identifies the maximum bond issuance as being $16,690,000. This figure assumes that the Parmly Billings Library Foundation will raise no additional revenue beyond the original lead gift of $2,000,000 and includes the costs of issuing the bonds. In fact, if the Foundation's capital campaign does not reach its $5,000,000 goal, the City Council may require that some areas or features of the building be left incomplete or be redesigned so that the project costs do not exceed the general obligation bonds, expected to be issued next spring, and the funding that the Foundation has raised.

For estimating purposes, staff assumes 20 year bonds and a 5% interest rate.  The tax on a $100,000 home would be $8.75 per year if the Foundation raises the full $5,000,000, and $10.00 per year if it receives no contributions beyond the original $2,000,000 gift. The tax on a $200,000 home would be $17.50 per year if the Foundation raises its full commitment and $20.00 per year if it receives no contributions beyond the original $2,000,000 gift.

The Library anticipates establishing a Building Maintenance Fund from unobligated reserves and annual contributions from its operating budget, which will be adequate to maintain the building and replace major building systems as their usable lives expire.

Studies of the current Library building at 510 Broadway over the past two decades, by Consulting Librarian David Smith, local architectural firms DGA, A & E, and O2 Architects, all under contract with the City of Billings, have all confirmed that all major systems of the current building, e.g. HVAC, elevators, plumbing, wiring, and the roof, long ago outlived their usable life. Replacing everything but the structure of the building is the minimum necessary for the Library to continue to operate. To provide contemporary and future library services that will increasingly involve technology, and to address service, operating cost, and safety issues, would require substantial remodeling beyond replacement of systems.

The City Council has approved a general obligation bond in FY2012 in its Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) ever since FY2006, for the purpose of either renovating floors 1-3 in the current Library building, at a cost then estimated by local architectural firm A & E to be up to $11,898,048, or for construction of a new Library building. Adjusted for inflation from FY2006 through FY2012, the projected cost of this project is now $13,383,684, and that is the amount in the current CIP. A recent review of industry cost statistics from 2006 to date confirm that this is a conservative estimate, conservative meaning that it does not underestimate the potential costs, with the related possibility of falling short of what voters would understand to be what they were voting for.

At its October 18, 2010 Work Session, the City Council received a report from the Parmly Billings Library Foundation, Inc. that, in the course of conducting a feasibility study to determine how much private funding the Foundation could raise to contribute to a library building project, it had identified a donor, who wished to remain anonymous, but had committed a donation of $2 million to a library building project, with the only conditions being that it be for a new building of architectural significance. The Foundation also reported that its feasibilty study concluded that a total of $5 million, including the $2 million lead gift, could be raised for a new building project, to supplement the public funding included in the City CIP, for a total project cost not to exceed $18,383,684.

At the same meeting, the City Council received a report from the Library Board of Trustees that the Board approved of the Foundation's acceptance of the anonymous gift and recommended that Library staff: 1) pursue aggregating the balance of the property on the block that the Library building is currently located, as recommended by the Downtown Library Facility Committee, and 2) work with the Foundation and its donor on proceeding with planning for a new Library building on the aggregated site. City Council members congratulated the Foundation on the anonymous donation and concurred with the Board's recommendation that staff work with the Foundation to plan for a new building.

The Foundation subsequently selected Will Bruder + Partners to design a new building on the block on which the Library is located and the firm selected 02 Architects as its local partner, and local firm The Foley Group to be landscape architects. The Community Design Center of the School of Architecture at Montana State University contracted with the Library to assist in the early design process. This team has conducted a series of public input meetings and focus groups to solicit public input into what the new library should feature. At its most recent public meeting on June 14, 2011, Will Bruder presented final schematic plans and reported that the building as planned, and achieving LEED Silver certification, remained within the $18 million budget the firm had been assigned.

At its Agenda Meeting the previous night, the City Council approved the exchange of land between the City and both Billings Clinic and Stockman Bank, which resulted in the City now owning the entire block on which the current Library is located, including the site for the new Library building, as designed by Will Bruder + Partners.

The Library Board of Trustees has recommended this project to the City Council.

To date, groups including the following have endorsed the project:

Billings Area Chamber of Commerce
Big Sky Economic Development Authority
Billings Cultural Partners
Parmly Billings Library Foundation, Inc.
Friends of the Parmly Billings Library

This project is consistent with the following adopted policies or plans.

The current City Council Strategic Plan includes, under Preservation of Resources, the specific priority: "Finalization of a viable plan for the Library."

The approved FY2011-2016 City of Billings Capital Improvement Plan includes Project PBL1201 "Build new building on current block. Budget to be determined, but estimated to approximate $13,383,684 costs for renovation of current building," from G.O. Bonds.

The Library Board of Trustees 2010 Five-Year Strategic Service Plan includes, under Goal 6 'Visit a Comfortable Place', the specific activity: "Obtain voter approval for bond issue to remodel or relocate a downtown main library."

The current Yellowstone County and City of Billings Growth Policy includes:

• A goal of "An economically and culturally vibrant Downtown Billings", which this project will help achieve,
• A goal of "A safe, attractive, economically vibrant downtown", which this project will help achieve,
• A goal of "Visually appealing communities", which this project will help achieve,
• A goal of "Actively maintain existing cultural institutions in Billings" which is what this project will achieve, and
• A goal of "A visually appealing and attractive landscape", including "the built environments", which this project will help achieve.

The Downtown Billings Framework Plan sets as its goal for the North Downtown District, in which this project is located: "Establish the area as both a discrete district and a recognized extension of the Central District, and connect the Medical Corridor and the University to the Downtown's Central District." This project will create a destination building that will define the district and serve as a connection between the Downtown Central District and the Medical Corridor and the University.