91原创 Township approved a 12,000 square foot library for Willoughby, a third larger than previous plans, and may borrow $17.4 million to build it.

On Monday, July 15, council pre-approved the library portion of the planned Willoughby Community Centre 

The pre-approval was part of a larger update on changes to the design for the centre, which is planned to be built on 80 Avenue in Yorkson Park. It will include a pool, athletic facilities, and multi-purpose rooms.

The larger library was requested by a number of people at a public open house held earlier this spring.

"There were concerns that an 8,000 square foot library, while larger than any other library in the Township, would not be large enough to serve the expanding community of Willoughby and offer all the different programs and functions that modern libraries include," said a Township report to council.

Mayor Eric Woodward noted the eventual population of Willoughby will require more facilities.

The library will include 2,000 square feet of multi-purpose rooms that will be shared with the overall rec centre, even outside of regular library hours.

"That's one of the pieces that's closest to my heart in that project," Councillor Michael Pratt said of the library side of the project.

Coun. Margaret Kunst noted that $17.4 million was a significant sum, and asked if that meant the library levy, which is part of local residents' property tax bill, would go up.

According to Township staffers, if the Township does take out the loan, it will be repayable from the library levy, and any possible increases in the levy will be debated in the process of coming up with future years' budgets for the Township.

Coun. Kim Richter raised a concern about the cost, and also brought up the fact that this is the second version of a plan for a Willoughby library.

The previous council was fairly far along in a plan to rent space in a mixed-use building in the same area, which Richter said could have been open by now, if Woodward and councillors in his slate had not moved ahead with a new plan for the full rec centre.

Woodward noted that the building in question is still under construction, and any library there would not be open now.

He also pointed to the size of Willoughby and the needs for amenities for its residents.

"There's a hundred thousand people going into the Willoughby area," Woodward said.

The council voted 8-1 in favour of pre-approval. 

The previous library plan referenced by Richter would have set the new library just across the street from the current site, and would have been as large or larger than the current 12,000 square foot proposal.

The rented library space was proposed to have taken up the entire second floor of a commercial building, occupying a little over 13,000 square feet.

While the library was the only part of the rec centre pre-approved, the report also laid out some expansions in other areas, including expanding the planned pool from six to eight lanes, and an increase from two to three gymnasiums.

Once built, the library will be a branch of the Fraser Valley Regional Library (FVRL) system, which the Township, 91原创 City, Maple Ridge, Abbotsford, and a number of other communities run jointly. Each community builds and runs its own branches, but the books and other materials are handled by the library's management. 

FVRL is the largest library system in the province, with Vancouver Public Library in second place in terms of the number of cardholders.