Silence Speaks Volumes on Library's Expansion Plan

A librarian wasn't needed at Tuesday night's public hearing on Pequot Library's $10 million expansion plan - the opposition was quiet enough.

Andrew Smith, of Center Street, said he didn't oppose the expansion plan but wanted screening set up between the library's parking lot and his home so he didn't have lights shining in his house at night. Smith's concern about screening was shared by Kendall Crolius, a senior warden at Trinity Episcopal Church, which has a rectory next to the library.

John Venezia, who sued two town boards for approving the library's expansion plan six years ago, said he liked Pequot Library's plan to more than double the number of parking spaces on its property - from 35 to 73 - but didn't want the library to increase its activities. Venezia referenced a "settlement agreement" from 2005 in which he agreed to withdraw his lawsuits if the library agreed not to increase its activities.

No one else spoke against Pequot Library's plan to build a 12,000-square-foot addition on the back of the library during Tuesday night's hearing of the Town Plan and Zoning Commission, an elected board of 10 volunteer residents, seven of whom vote on development applications. The hearing was held in McKinley School's cafeteria.

The addition would increase the size of the children's library; create space for volumes in the library's highly-regarded "special collection" that are now stored off-site; enable a "high-tech community classroom" to be established; increase the width of the library's driveway; create a drop-off area by the library's entrance; update the ventilation system; and add 38 parking spaces on the library's property.

A children's addition built in 1972 would be demolished to make way for the proposed addition.

John Fallon, Pequot Library's attorney, said the additional parking spaces would mean less parked cars on adjacent streets, which is a long-standing sore point with nearby residents.

"We think it's great for the town, great for the library and great for the people that patronize the library," said George Russell, president of the Sasquanaug Association, a neighborhood group.

Barbara Johnson, a Southport resident, said, "It's just time for our generation to step up and make this library as beautiful on the inside as it is on the outside."

Patricia Spaght, also of Southport, said, "I think it has been an absolutely fabulous asset to Southport and I support the addition."

But the potential for more traffic and more activity at Pequot Library was the basis for Smith's and Venezia's objections.

Smith said Wakeman Boys & Girls Club on Center Street started off hosting after-school programs but now had a lacrosse field and was a "leading athletic center." He said driving on Center Street was sometimes "like driving on the Grand Concourse past Yankee Stadium."

"It's somewhat disingenious to think it's going to remain this sleepy little jewel that no one comes to," Smith said of Pequot Library.

Venezia said the increased space "could be used in a way that brings hundreds of cars to the library," and he wanted TPZ members to restrict use of the library to what was included in the settlement agreement. He suggested, as an example, that only the auditorium could be used by third parties.

"It was part of pending litigation. The library has restricted its use to what's in the settlement agreement for the last five years. I believe the settlement agreement reflects the current use of the library," Venezia said.

Fallon said the commission was only allowed to attach conditions of approval that ensure a project conforms to zoning regulations. "Whatever we agreed to with Mr. Venezia in 2004 as a matter of private contract is between us and him. There's no reason for [TPZ members] to jump in and impose conditions of approval when there's no legal basis to do it," he said.

Fallon added that the library's proposed development wasn't the same now as it was when Venezia sued the TPZ in 2004.

Fallon said he's come to like Venezia but added, "He does remind me of the guy who buys a house next to an airport and then complains about the planes."

Kelsey Biggers, president of Pequot Library's board of trustees, said, "We didn't spring the library on you. It's been there since 1890."

"We can't deny our mission. We're an evolving institution. To stop us in time and freeze us to an arbitrary point in time, where programs are X and Y, I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that," Biggers said.

The TPZ closed its public hearing on Pequot Library's proposed expansion late Tuesday and may vote on it at its next scheduled meeting in two weeks.

After the hearing, Daniel Snydacker, Pequot Library's executive director, said the library was seeking grants for its expansion but added that most of the $10 million would have to be raised through donations. "We're not going to public sources, which are overtaxed as it is," he said.

Snydacker said the library hoped to begin its expansion next spring. "We wouldn't be here tonight if we didn't feel comfortable," he said.