At the October 18, 2010 work session, the City Council received a report from the Parmly Billings Library about facility planning.  Library Foundation Director Leslie Modrow announced that a $2,000,000 gift has been offered by an anonymous donor.  The donor's conditions are that the funds be spent for a new, architecturally significant library building.  Library Board Chairman Bernard Rose reported that the Board recommends that a new library be built on the block of land that lies between N. 28th and N. 29th and between the former 5th Avenue North right of way and 6th Avenue North.  That recommendation includes an alternative, but less desirable site.  Library Director Bill Cochran reported on preliminary negotiations between City staff and landowners of adjacent property that must be acquired in order to conform to the Library Board's recommendation.  The City Council is being asked to 1) approve the $2,000,000 donation to the Foundation for a new library of architectural significance; 2) approve the Library Board's site recommendation; and 3) direct staff to work with adjacent property owners to secure the land that is needed to implement the Library Board's site recommendation.

The Council may approve or disapprove any or all of the three recommendations discussed above.  The Downtown Library Facility Committee reviewed more than fifty lots, representing more than two dozen locations, most in a downtown zone determined by the Committee, but also including a few potential sites to the west of the downtown. The Committee developed a list of site criteria to apply against each location, with the criteria then being confirmed as representative of community priorities through a statistically valid survey of 378 telephone and internet responses. The full survey report can be accessed at: http://ci.billings.mt.us/DocumentView.aspx?DID=6214.

The Committee ultimately recommended to the Library Board three different site configurations, all on or contiguous to the current Library site.

Approval of the Library Board's downtown library facility recommendations will not have immediate financial impact, but a bond election for over $13,000,000 is included in the City's CIP for 2012.  Approving the $2,000,000 donation will allow the Foundation and donor to proceed with the immediate priority of preparing a preliminary building design.  The land assemblage may not require an immediate cash outlay because, as was explained by Billings Clinic representatives at the Oct. 18 meeting, it would be willing to exchange its land that is south of 6th Avenue North for street right of way within its campus boundaries.  Additional property would need to be acquired from another land owner, but that owner has previously worked with the City to exchange properties that are mutually beneficial. 

Since 1995, the Parmly Billings Library Board of Trustees has worked with the City Council, interested private developers, representatives of other public facility projects, and other community stakeholders on dozens of efforts to develop plans to renovate or replace the 1955 Billings Hardware Building the Library currently occupies.

Most recently, in response to citizen input provided by the Library's Strategic Planning Focus Groups and the City Council's Community Conversations, the City Council and Library Board of Trustees agreed that a joint committee should be given a charge to develop a clear plan for a downtown library facility. The Downtown Library Planning Committee, which included City Council members among members from every City ward, worked from March through September to identify a recommended location or locations for a downtown Library building, a process facilitated by City-County Planning Director Candi Beaudry and assisted by the research firm of Library Consulting, P.A. The Committee presented three site recommendations to the Library Board at the Board's October 14 meeting. Trustee Bernard Rose presented the Library Board's final recommendations to the City Council at its October 18 Work Session. Also disclosed at the work session is the lead donation of $2,000,000 for a new Library structure.

The City's Capital Improvement Plan includes addressing downtown Library facility needs through a $13,383,684 general obligation bond election in FY2012, which can be used either to fund a new facility or for renovation of the existing building. A 2001 study of all City buildings by a local architectural firm found that even then, "the building does not serve its function well. First and second floor library are an under funded attempt to convert a parts warehouse into library function. Significant investment is required to bring this building to any reasonable standard let along convert this building to the proud civic facility it should be." Since then, the condition of the building has only worsened, in spite of significant annual expenditures for absolutely necessary repairs. If a new, 60,000 square foot building is not built to replace the current building, the entire 110,000 square foot building will need to be totally renovated at a cost likely to be higher than the appropriately sized new building, even without consideration of comparable functional and aesthetic improvements.