One has its future home secured, the other not so much. But Arlington government officials say plans for two future branch libraries will come together over time.
County library director Diane Kresh used her April 2 budget work session with County Board members to sketch out proposals for two major projects – a library for Crystal City and relocation of the Columbia Pike branch.
The former seemed to have a location decided on, but that plan didn’t work out, Kresh said. She was quick to add that options actively are being explored for the Crystal City facility.
“We’re not abandoning it,” Kresh told board members, while acknowledging that “it may not come online as quickly” as some residents may desire. The plan remains to make it a full-service library, she said.
The current Columbia Pike branch has been in the same location for decades adjacent to the Arlington Career Center. Current plans call for a new library to be constructed two blocks north and west of the existing branch, on a parcel purchased by the county government several years ago.
That site currently is vacant; a contract to demolish the SunTrust Bank building on the parcel has been approved and “we’re going to start work on that,” County Manager Mark Schwartz said.
But that doesn’t mean a library will pop up immediately. County-government officials have agreed to give the school system access to parking on the site for the next two years. Those spaces will be used to accommodate workers constructing the new Arlington Career Center building nearby.
What the county government’s financial condition will be in when the time comes for the project to move forward could be anyone’s guess. But Kresh was letting her imagination run wild, imagining a facility that might also contain the Black Heritage Museum of Arlington (which used to be located above the bank space), an expansion of the library’s Center for Local History efforts, a collaboration with the Arlington Historical Society and the potential of affordable housing rising above.
The library system also is about to embark on a “Future of Libraries” planning effort as it begins gazing into the future. The initiative will kick off with an invitation-only event of community leaders and county staff to build “scenarios” that then will be shared with the public for feedback.
