By LEAH WEATHERSBY

It was like deja vu all over again at the Greenwood Library on Dec. 3. Greenwood and Phinney Ridge residents gathered there to see Seattle Public Library officials and architects present updated designs for the new library to be built on the site where the current Greenwood branch now stands.

Planning for the new Greenwood Library, which will more than double the size of the current building to 15,000 square feet, has been arduous to say the least. Nearly a year ago to the day, architects from buffalodesign had presented plans for a library to built on the McDonald's restaurant site on Greenwood Avenue N, just north of North 85th Street. That meeting drew a variety of community comments about the design, a number of which were negative. A Library Liaison Committee was eventually formed to hash out a plan that both the community and the Library Board could feel comfortable with, possibly putting the facility in a mixed-use building.

However, it was not to be. In late August, the Library Board abruptly voted to abandon the McDonald's site, instead electing to tear down the current Greenwood Library building, opened in 1954, and put a new, larger building in its place.

Just what that new library will look like wasn't much clearer at the end of the Dec. 3 meeting than it was at the beginning.

"We feel like we went too far without sharing last December," said City Librarian Deborah Jacobs in explaining the lack of specifics in buffalodesign's latest drawings. Library representatives said they planned to come back to the community with more concrete ideas about the project early next year.

One thing is clear: the new Greenwood Library building will be a tight fit on that site, even after the Seattle Public Library acquires a house immediately to the east of the current building, as planned.

"They're (still) one site short," said Kate Martin, a Greenwood-Phinney resident who has been actively involved in the discussions regarding the proposed new building. "They need to acquire another piece of property." Martin said that with such a large building coming into a relatively small area, she was afraid open space would loose out.

Douglas Bailey, the Seattle Public Library official who is overseeing the project to construct a new Greenwood Library building, acknowledged that the library will likely think about program space first and open space second. "This is going to be an interesting fit on this site," he said.

One other message from the community also came through that night: don't forget the road behind as you look at the road ahead.

"People were concerned about making sure their prior input was still valid," said Gloria Butts, a member of the Broadview Community Council.

For more adventures in Greenwood Library planning, stay tuned.

For more information on the new Greenwood Library, call Douglas Bailey at 386-4173. b