With site work getting underway for New Canaan Library’s widely anticipated $39.2 million rebuilding project, visitors starting Monday will encounter new access routes for motor vehicles and pedestrians during construction.
Motorists seeking to use the book-drop now can only enter the library property from South Avenue, where three disabled parking spaces and three additional short-term spots have been set aside, and can only exit onto Cherry Street, officials say. Additionally, 76 free library parking spaces have been set aside in Center School lot. From there, pedestrians can enter the library property via South Avenue for the existing rear entrance, or can access one of two entrances on Main Street, including the one for the original building.
The library’s executive director, Lisa Oldham, said the new building is expected to be ready for move-in in 15 months, or in February 2023.
“I’m so very happy to be a part of such an important and positive development for this community,” Oldham said. “And I am so excited to see this project move forward.”
Library officials say they’re waiting for First Selectman Kevin Moynihan to determine fees before issuing the project’s building permit. An agreement that spells out the terms of the town’s $10 million gift to the library for its project had been signed about two weeks ago, they said.
The site work at the library marks the beginning of a construction project several years in the making. Unveiled publicly in January 2020 and with some changes to the initial plan later made, the library’s application was approved by the Planning & Zoning Commission in July following eight hearings.
Plans call for a new 42,641-square-foot facility closer to Maple Street and with a new entrance facing south—with a Children’s Room twice the size of the current one, a Business Center, flex spaces such as a teaching kitchen and large meeting room, 355-seat auditorium, outdoor terrace, small ‘café,’ ’living room’ on the mezzanine level promoting social interaction and ‘library green’ that encompasses the area where the library’s original 1913 building now stands.
In its approval, P&Z left open the question of just how the library would preserve its original 1913 building and 1930s-era addition, such as moving all or some of it to a different part of the property. The Commission said the library should get 120 days from the effective date of its approval (the Special Permit became effective Aug. 30) to work with the town planner and deliver a plan for preservation.
In an e-newsletter sent Friday, Oldham said, “We will now turn our attention to work on the preservation of the legacy part of the library. Our architects are developing concept plans for options, to be presented to the Planning & Zoning commission in order to begin this important dialogue.”
A few weeks after P&Z approved the library’s applications, the New Canaan Preservation Alliance sued P&Z over the approval. That civil matter is still pending in state Superior Court. A subsequent effort to force a town-wide referendum vote on the $10 million gift to the project failed.
[Editor: Comments are disabled on this article. We updated the sentence that refers to the town’s gift to reflect $10 million, not $15 million, as well as the status to the project’s building permit.]