Library panel finding space tight

As Wayland considers an expansion of its library, a committee working on the plan is exploring whether the town should purchase part or all of an adjacent residential property on Concord Road.

No decisions have been made, but the committee conducting a feasibility study is finding little room to maneuver on the already tight site of the approximately 100-year-old brick structure.

Often, there is not enough parking at the library, even at its current size. And at less than 13,000 square feet, the building is woefully inadequate, library officials say.

Lynne Lipcon, chairwoman of the board of library trustees, said library employees cull the collection more than they would like because there isn't enough space for materials.

The children's room is also too small and the building lacks a young adult area for middle school and high school students, she said. The library also has little space for community programs, meetings, and storage, she said.

Surveys of residents have confirmed that those who use the library would like more space, Lipcon said. Town Meeting appropriated $40,000 in May 2002 to plan for an expansion.

''Quite frankly, I think we do a remarkable job," Lipcon said. ''People love the library, and we're doing it with our hands tied behind our back."

Library officials would like to more than double the size of the library, to about 30,000 square feet. They have no cost estimates yet for the project, which is in the early stages of planning.

Library officials hope the project might receive a state grant from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners, said Sally Cartwright, who chairs the feasibility study committee, but it's unclear whether Wayland would get a grant, how much it would be, and when it might be available.

Cartwright said the study committee hopes to issue a report sometime next month to the library trustees, who will decide whether to pursue a more detailed design for an expansion.

A plan will likely be more clear after a committee meeting this week, Lipcon said, once members have more information from the architectural firm they hired. The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Tuesday at the library.

Plans for a library expansion come at a time when residents are grappling with a proposal to replace almost all of the high school, at an estimated cost of $55.5 million.

In addition to cost and space issues at the current site, library officials must consider regulatory hurdles. The library is in the town's aquifer protection district, which makes necessary permits harder to get, and the current building is near wetlands.

For now, the feasibility study committee is evaluating whether the town ought to try to buy part or all of a 4.5-acre property to the north owned by Robert N. Karpp and his wife, Leslie.

Library officials have had informal talks with the Karpps, who live in a house on the property. They have discussed a ballpark figure of $1.6 million for the house and all the land, though both sides emphasize that no agreement has been reached.

''The property currently is not for sale, and it may never be. But we have discussed that possibility with the library because they need the space to build," Robert Karpp said last week.

An architect and a civil engineer working for the study committee have presented several conceptual designs showing that a major expansion of the library may result in a smaller parking area than the library has now unless the town acquires all of the abutting land.

''What this exercise has told us is the only feasible option for this site is to buy the entire Karpp property," said architect R. Drayton Fair, of the firm Lerner Ladds + Bartels Inc., of Providence, which the committee hired in May.

But Lipcon emphasized that the study committee has other options, including scaling back the size of the project; putting parking somewhere else, such as underground; or coming up with a creative reconfiguration of the proposed building that fits the available land. Committee members have also discussed finding a new site for the library.

During a meeting last month, one member of the feasibility study committee suggested that the town purchase the entire Karpp site, then demolish both the existing library and the Karpps' house, making room for a new building there.

''You can't hang on to the past if you are concerned about the future,said committee member Eric Hollenberg. But other members said they doubted voters would stand for demolishing either building, noting each has architectural and historic merit.