Library to seek public input on site for new 'flagship' building at May meetings

The Ottawa Public Library has announced public consultations on how to select a site for a new main branch, something some local residents have been pressuring it to do for months.

• Ottawans should decide where new central library goes, board told
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The library will hold two in-person sessions at Ottawa City Hall on May 16 — one at 4 p.m. and one at 7 p.m. — to come up with a list of criteria that will be used to evaluate possible sites for a new flagship building.

The library expects those sessions to be so well-attended, it asks people to register in advance.

An online questionnaire to get feedback on that criteria list will then be posted in May or June.

At the same time as the criteria are being developed, the library will be working with the city to come up with a list of sites in its agreed-upon central zone that could house either a stand-alone library, or a building shared with Library and Archives Canada.

That inventory will include sites identified earlier, plus city-owned sites — the library has previously shown a preference for a site at 557 Wellington St., near the western outlet of the new light rail tunnel near Bronson Avenue.

The Ottawa Public Library will also do an open call-out in local media and on the procurement site, MERX.

The board is to approve a set of criteria by July, the library said, and announce a location before the end of 2016.