EDITORIAL
When it comes to deciding whether to relocate the Chapel Hill Public Library in University Mall, the easy thing for the Chapel Hill Town Council to do would be to declare the deal too complicated, walk away and tell the mall’s owners, Madison Marquette, “Thank you very much and good luck with your shopping center.â€
The plans for expanding the existing library are already drawn up and approved, and plans for the library’s move to temporary space in the mall at the opposite end of Dillards are under consideration. But as evidenced at the council meeting Tuesday night, there are plenty of questions and a lot of moving parts.
If they walked away from the mall’s proposal, council members could cite the voters who approved the bonds for the library expansion. Judging from the public’s response to the Dillards proposal, keeping the library at its current site still seems to be favored by the library’s patrons and supporters.
The sense of ownership library patrons feel about their very well-used facility and the beautiful park around it is understandable. And then there are the countless hours that went into coming up with an expansion plan for the new building. Although some of the resulting ideas could go into the design at the mall, scrapping the design itself would be a waste.
But consideration of the mall proposal is not taking place in a vacuum. The financial pressures on the town and its taxpayers are much different than in 2003.
Since tight budgets have delayed the project for the past two years, the council now undoubtedly feels a sense of urgency to come to a conclusion. But that urgency should not outweigh a careful look at the deal and the numerous questions surrounding it. Valid points were raised Tuesday night, questioning how ownership of the building would work, the future of the mall and the public’s right of access.
Right now, it is difficult to suss out how those things would work, just as it is to determine how much the town would actually save by moving the library permanently to the mall. So far, town officials are restricted to gathering facts and are not authorized to negotiate with the mall owners. New facts (“wrinkles,†as the town manager put it) are surfacing that will surely influence the decision.
The council must have all the facts to accurately weigh the risk and return in this public investment. Right now, we’ve got a pig in a poke. Without more time and actual negotiations, there is no way to know if this deal represents multi-million dollar savings for the town or a venture too risky to undertake.
It’s likely that even after more research and discussion, the town manager’s report on Feb. 14 will still have gaps and a lot of “ifs†and “maybes.â€
The council wants to move on, but as council member Gene Pease reminded his colleagues Tuesday, we are in a very different era, one in which local governments are likely to feel even more strain ahead.
Yes, council members should keep faith with the voters – both the ones who approved the expansion of the library and the ones who’ve charged them with being good stewards of the public purse.