Agenda - 01-23-2007-9d - Laserfiche WebLink

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Orange County Library Long-Range Facility Planning should be made clear to the residents what the overall plan is as parts of it are implemented and how they will be served by the plan regardless of the location of their residence. It is also important that the facilities and resources be part of a coordinated system of services and that the public be made aware of the connections among the libraries. It is also recommended that, optimally, 20-year population projections be used in determining locations and sizes of facilities. Buildings should be built to accommodate growth in collections and services as the population grows over the life of the building. Moreover, it often takes 5 years or more from the time a plan is conceived until a building is opened, thereby reducing the planned growth allowance for the completed facility. The consultant has proposed the following facilities to serve the projected Orange County population, with suggested design populations for each facility: ¦ Central Orange County Library o The recommended design population is 100,000. This figure was determined by taking the 2025 projected population for the entire county and subtracting the projected population of the Town of Chapel Hill. Alternatively, if the following facility is designed as recommended and serves as a regional reference center, the central library design population could be reduced to 65,000. ¦ Regional Branch Library Located in Carrboro o It is proposed that this facility be designed to serve the Town of Carrboro, western areas of the Chapel Hill Township, and the southern area of Bingham Township. It is also acknowledged that the branch will likely experience use by residents of northern Chatham County. The resulting recommendation is that the design population be 40,000. This figure was determined by taking the 2025 projected population for the Town of Carrboro and adding 25% of the projected population of the unincorporated areas of the Chapel Hill Township, 50% of the Bingham Township and 1,600 residents of Chatham County. ¦ Branch Library to Serve Cheeks Township o The recommended design population is 10,000, the projected 2025 population of the township. ¦ Chapel Hill Public Library o The Town of Chapel Hill has already approved the expansion of the current library facility to serve a design population of 93,000. This figure was determined by taking the projected 2025 population of the Town of Chapel Hill and adding 32% of the projected populations of the Chapel Hill Township outside of the town limits and of the Bingham Township (Robert H. Rohlf, Chapel Hill Public Library: Reconnnended Library Building Pragranr, p.ii). ¦ Cedar Grove Branch Library o Although this plan does not include a recommendation to expand the Cedar Grove Library, it should be noted that the projected 2025 population is 7,150. The Orange County Library should continue to monitor demographic trends in this area of the county and expand services as necessary to respond to the growth. 'ct 12