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After careful review of site selection studies and an abundance of community input, the Anne Arundel County Public Library’s Board of Trustees has voted to rebuild the Annapolis Regional Library at its current location of 1410 West Street.
The Board’s unanimous decision comes after several months of debate as to whether the new library should be built at its current location or moved to one of two possible sites along Solomons Island Road in Parole. The property owners of both of the Parole candidate sites declined to sell their land.
The vote paves the way for the Anne Arundel County Executive’s office to recommend a site to the County Council. A vote by the Council will ultimately determine the site selection decision for the 48,000 square foot regional library.
As required by County policy, the library system originally studied multiple sites for the new regional library in and around Annapolis – 15 in total. Three finalist sites were selected by the Library and the County Department of Public Works (DPW): Rowe Boulevard, the Somerville property in Parole, and the current location on West Street.
Assuming successful acquisition of the adjacent properties surrounding the current West Street site, the Library expects the new Annapolis Regional Library to total about 48,000 square feet – more than double the size of the current structure – with 181 parking spaces.
“We are pleased to be moving forward with this project, which will be so important and valuable to new generations of library users over the coming decades,” said Joan Beck, chair of the Annapolis Regional Library Capital Project Committee [ANNCAP], a committee of the Library’s Board of Trustees.
The Board appreciates the support of County Executive Neuman, Councilman Trumbauer, and others who were instrumental in getting this project funded in the County’s Capital Improvement Program. Once the County votes to finalize site selection, the next step will be to hire a library architect to design the new library with considerable input from the Library, County DPW and the community. Design and construction are expected to take 3-4 years, with opening of the new library in 2018 or 2019.
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