Analysis: TrueNorth library site

TrueNorth is the romantic site for a library.

The building would look across Greene Square Park toward the old Carnegie library, now the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art. The appeal of the site was best summed up by Doug Elliott, library board vice president, right before he voted against it as an option.

“My heart calls out for the TrueNorth site,” Elliott said. “But there are so many what ifs.”

Doug Neumann, president of the Downtown District, said Thursday that his organization wants the library to be built either on the site of the Gazette and KCRG-TV9, or at TrueNorth. But he agreed with the first half of Elliott's quote.

“A lot of people feel that way,” Neumann said. “The real magic is in that TrueNorth site.”

Despite the magic, what drove the library board away from the site were the “what ifs.” They have two concerns: parking and flooding.

The library board wants more than 300 free, library-specific parking spots at the new library. The TrueNorth block is not large enough for a library and all those parking spots.

The parking ramp next door to TrueNorth is run by the city. With no clear promise from the city that it would help the library secure the parking it wants, and with no clear option for building a parking lot or ramp, the library board found itself turning to the Emerald Knights and Gazette sites, where there is room for a parking garage.

The TrueNorth building took on water in two below-grade parts of the building, said Randy Rings, general counsel for the company. Most of the building stayed dry during the flood, but part of the property may be in the new, yet-to-be-released 500 year flood plain.

This could affect how much the library would have to pay for flood insurance, and it could affect how much the Federal Emergency Management Agency pays for construction of the new library at that site. FEMA officials will not accept any site in the 100 year flood plain, Pasicsnyuk wrote in an e-mail, and does not recommend sites in the 500 year plain, but will negotiate depending on local conditions and flood mitigation techniques.

Answers to these questions have been difficult to come up with, but a library on the site would be built out of the floodplain, much the same way the new federal courthouse is elevated.

TrueNorth and the owner of the adjacent parking lot along the railroad tracks will charge a total of about $5 million for the land and $3.5 million for relocation costs, but those prices are flexible, and the company has reopened a search for other office space in downtown Cedar Rapids, Rings said.

“The odds are pretty good that we could find something,” Rings said.