By CLAYTON PARK

After spending the past year evaluating designs for a new Greenwood Library on a site along Greenwood Avenue, just north of N. 85th, the Library Board is expressing second thoughts as to whether it really wants the library built there at all.

On Aug. 14, Alex Harris, the Seattle Public Library's capital program director, stunned Greenwood neighborhood activists by announcing at a community meeting that the Library Board is discontinuing the process to have the McDonald's restaurant site at 8533 Greenwood Ave. N. condemned, which would have been the prelude to purchasing the property.

She added that she expects the Library Board - when it meets on Tuesday, Aug. 28 - will likely revoke its site decision for the McDonald's property in favor of the Greenwood Library's current location at 8016 Greenwood Ave. N.

Gary Teachout, a Greenwood merchant who serves on a citizens group called Friends of the Greenwood Library, expressed his anger at the possibility of such a decision. He told the Jet City Maven that such a move by the Library Board would break all agreements that the Seattle Public Library has made with the community to date.

The McDonald's property, which is owned by a family trust called Greenwood Shopping Center Inc., was chosen by the Library Board in June 2000 after a lengthy site selection process that included input from area residents.

While some locals had indicated a preference for building the new Greenwood Library on the site of the current library, the majority of those surveyed favored the McDonald's site because its location in the heart of Greenwood's commercial district.

What's more, at the time of the Library Board's decision last year, the Greenwood Library's current site had been considered less than ideal because of its relatively small size and steep slope.

The current building that houses the Greenwood Library is an aging 48-year-old, 2-story structure that only offers 7,094 square feet of space. The Library Board has stated a goal of building a new 15,000-square-foot Greenwood Library that was originally slated to break ground this fall and open a year from now.

In an Aug. 24 interview, Harris told the Jet City Maven that the Greenwood Library project will likely be pushed back at least a year from its original timetable.

"In general, it takes one year of design and one year of construction," she said.

The design process has halted in December after a number of Greenwood residents expressed dissatisfaction with the architectural proposals presented for a stand-alone library building.

The Library Board proceeded to initiate a study to look into the possibility of a mixed-use building that could include both a library as well as housing and/or retail space.

Housing Resources Group, a non-profit group that specializes in developing affordable housing projects, presented a proposal for a building on the McDonald's site that would include a new library on the ground level facing Greenwood Avenue with a six-story tower on the Palatine Avenue side that would have affordable housing units.

Greenwood Shopping Center Inc. countered with a more upscale proposal: a six-story "urban village" complex that would offer restaurant/retail space on the ground floor facing Greenwood Avenue, with the library on the second floor and the library entrance in a courtyard that would face Palatine Avenue to the west. The project would include a landscaped pedestrian corridor, connecting Greenwood and Palatine avenues, and apartment units on five upper floors.

Harris said several community members expressed concerns regarding the Housing Resource Group's proposal, noting that the Greenwood neighborhood already had taken its share of affordable housing projects.

While more people in the community appeared to favor the Greenwood Shopping Center Inc.'s proposal, Harris said some library officials balked at the notion of having the Greenwood Library on the second floor and the lack of visibility on the Greenwood Avenue side of the building.

Harris stressed that the Library Board has yet to make a final decision, but added that "they felt it was inappropriate to continue with the condemnation process."

As far as the previously expressed concerns regarding the current Greenwood Library site, Harris said building a multi-level structure would allow the new library to be of sufficient space. During the construction phase of the project, the Greenwood Library would temporarily close for several months rather than relocate at an interim site. The Library Board would compensate for the closure by extending the hours of operation for other nearby branches, such as the Broadview and Fremont libraries.

Rob Fellows, a Greenwood resident who serves as chairman of the Library Liaison Committee, said he doesn't understand why the Library Board is suddenly thinking about going back on its decision to build the new library on the McDonald's site. He expressed hope that the Library Board would instead return to the table to discuss possible revisions to the Greenwood Shopping Center Inc.'s proposed design that could satisfy both parties' needs.

While Fellows said he believes a good library could be built on the current site of the Greenwood Library, the shame would be in passing up an opportunity to create a project that would do more than that: by locating the library on the McDonald's site, it could serve to bring some much-needed new vitality to Greenwood's business core. "We have the potential to really make a difference in our downtown (Greenwood) area," he said. "The McDonald's site is one of those rare opportunities." (