Board Spares Housing in Selecting Sites for New Greenwood Library

The Seattle Public Library Board narrowed the choice of sites for the new Greenwood library from eight to three in a board meeting April 25.

The three sites are the Medicine Man pharmacy at North 85th Street and Dayton Avenue North, McDonalds near North 85th Street and Greenwood Avenue North, and the existing library site.

The board revised the configuration of the library site to eliminate one residential property taking, the home of Chester and Myrna Schlee at 311 N. 82nd Street.

"We do have concern about removing residences if we do not need to," said Douglas Bailey, the library's capital project manager.

Board member Betty Jane Narver concurred.

"Let's see if we can build the library we need without taking residential property."

Bailey said the existing site is very popular among the community due to its proximity to area schools. And McDonalds, according to Bailey, had been approached.

"They didn't throw us out," remarked Bailey. "We see that as positive."

Neighbors of the Medicine Man, said Bailey, support the pharmacy site because they believe a library will slow traffic on North 84th Street.

Members of the 83rd and 84th Street Neigborhood Association applauded the board's choice of sites. Members of the neighborhood association had lobbied the library board to strike two sites from the list: the Mori Japanese/Pizza Hut restaurant sites at 1st Avenue Northwest and North 85th Street. Both sites would have meant condemnation of several homes in a well-established single-family neighborhood plus a number of commercial properties.

"Oh, it's such a relief," said Willie Mitchell.

"I am so glad," said fellow member Sally de Jong, "that I will be able to look outside and see my neighbor's houses."

The board chose Buffalo Design as the architect for the new library. Greenwood's 7,000 square-foot library will be replaced by a 15,000 square foot library that will open in 2002. The library expects to purchase a site by the end of this year.

GREENWOOD LIBRARY SITE SHORT LIST

FOR MORE INFO

Contact Douglas Bailey, capital project manager, at 386-4108 or douglas.bailey@spl.org.

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