Library head moves away from surface lots to solve parking needs

On the eve of the City Council's scheduled vote to pick a library site, library director Bob Pasicznyuk reports the library board has tweaked its thinking on parking for the new $45 million library.

The board now believes the library will need only 200 to 220 parking slots, based on talks he's had with librarians elsewhere. Initially, the plan had been for 320 parking spaces, with about 30 to 40 slots needed for library staff during peak times of the day.

Pasicznyuk also said the board's first and second choices for a library site - the Gazette Communications and the Emerald Knights block, respectively - likely will include a two-story parking ramp rather than surface parking in an adjacent block, as initially proposed.

That development is likely to spark discussion from some council members who favor a third site - the TrueNorth site - which sits across railroad tracks from the half-empty, 924-slot, city-owned Fourth Avenue parkade. The plan would be to connect that parkade to the TrueNorth site with a skywalk.

Pasicznyuk said the two-story ramps at the other two sites would not be a “traditional parkade or ramp,” noting two-level ramps can be designed to look almost like parks.

“I think we can make it so it doesn't stick out like a sore thumb,” he said. “I don't think that will be an issue.”

The library board's second choice of sites, the Emerald Knights block, is a busier spot and has no adjacent blocks suitable for surface parking, so the board had planned for a three-story parking ramp there. Pasicznyuk said now that ramp likely could be two stories, too, if the council chooses that site.

Pasicznyuk said he had heard the “concerns” about surface parking lots and how they didn't work with the city's downtown plan.

Pasicznyuk said the library board's concern about parking stems from past surveys showing 85 percent of patrons cited lack of parking as the No. 1 problem with the now-flood-wrecked library at 500 First St. SE. That building has about 40 slots, on-street parking and skywalk access to a nearby parking ramp.

For those who point to the parkade next to the TrueNorth site as an asset to that site, Pasicznyuk notes the parkade next to the former library didn't lessen the perception of lack of accessible parking.

“My concern is that when patrons come, they say, ‘Gosh, it's a lot easier for me to do my business elsewhere,'” the library director said. That, he added, can mean patrons choosing to go to libraries in Marion and Hiawatha instead of to a library in downtown Cedar Rapids.