| How will thousands of new residents affect
our new library? |
It is not possible to introduce more than 4,000 new residents without affecting city services, including police, city administration and, of course, the under-construction library due to open next summer. Some background is necessary to explain why the inevitable stress on the as-yet-unopened new library disappoints citizens' wishes and harms their quality of life with regard to library services. In 2002, when studies were done to determine the community's library needs, they found that the current Louisville Library is crowded, used intensively by citizens, and housed in a highly inefficient space not helpful to library use (the current library is located in a building designed for offices). In public meetings, citizens agreed a new library should be built, and they decided on a library they believed would fill their needs. Citizens in November 2003 approved a $7.4 million library. The part to remember about the library planning process: The library was designed on the assumption that the population of Louisville in 20 years would be 21,000. (Source: Anne Mojo, Louisville Library Director) That is 3,000 fewer than what the pro-growth candidates are projecting in 20 years. More concerning than that is that the pro-growth candidates have embraced a flawed growth plan that would allow Louisville to grow to 24,000 in less than 10 years. The important point: During the process of deciding what size the new library should be, prior to the November 2003 election and until February 2005, no one had thought that pro-growth Council members would advocate and put in place a Comp Plan that allows massive housing throughout most of Louisville. Even with persistent and vocal opposition to such growth, the pro-growth Council would only agree to non-binding, unenforceable and advisory language in the Comp Plan that says the plan's "intent" is no more than 23,000. Less than a month earlier, before the November election loomed before them, the five pro-growth Council members had envisioned that Louisville would grow by more than 32%, to 25,000, or more. In other words, when they designed and paid for the new library, Louisville citizens had no idea our representatives would approve massive increases in housing and population. This appetite for growth threatens to return Louisville to the same library situation the city had before citizens spent $7.4 million to build a new library. We are confronted with this new problem less than a year before the new library opens. |
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