Pequot Library Ready to Start New Chapter

Pequot Library, the distinctive pink granite building in the town's Southport neighborhood, could begin its $10 million expansion next spring, according to Daniel Snydacker, the library's executive director.

"We're thrilled," Snydacker said in a classroom at Fairfield Ludlowe High School after the Town Plan and Zoning Commission approved the library's expansion plan on a unanimous vote Tuesday night. "This addition is so we can provide the best spaces for our current programs. We don't want to be a bigger library or something other than a library. We want to be the best small library we can be."

Snydacker said construction of a 12,000-square-foot addition, which would nearly double the size of the 720 Pequot Ave. library, would take about 18 months after construction starts. He said the addition, to be built on back of the library, still requires approval from the town's Historic District Commission.

The expansion plan includes increasing the size of the children's library; creating a room for the library's "special collection" of rare and historic books and documents, 30,000 of which are now stored off-site; creating a "high-tech community classroom;" creating a drop-off area by the library's entrance; updating the library's ventilation system; increasing from 35 to 73 the number of on-site parking spaces; and expanding the library's driveway so two cars can safely pass each other.

TPZ member Deborah Owens said Pequot Library, which is privately owned but open to the public, was a treasure because of its architecture and atmosphere and was one of her favorite places to read.

But Owens said she doesn't like to bring her children to the library because the children's library is so cramped. She said it also would be nice if the 30,000 volumes in the library's special collection could be stored at the library.

John Venezia of Pequot Avenue, who sued two town boards for approving another version of the library's expansion plan six years ago, had wanted the zoning commission to include terms of a "settlement agreement" in its approval. That agreement, reached between Venezia and the library, basically limited library programs in the auditorium and the hosting of private organizations' functions at the library.

Venezia was concerned about the volume of traffic and parked cars by the library that could result from the expansion plan.

But Owens said she didn't think the expansion would "create an abundance of additional patrons."

"I think it will make patrons who already go there happier. Everything they've suggested is in keeping with the library as a historical treasure in town," Owens said.

TPZ member Bryan LeClerc agreed with John Fallon, Pequot Library's attorney, who argued in last month's public hearing that the agreement between Venezia and the library was a private contract and that the TPZ could only impose conditions of approval to ensure a project conformed to town zoning regulations.

Richard Jacobs, a TPZ member, said the 1972 addition for the children's library, which would be demolished to make way for the new addition, didn't belong on the library. "The one they're putting in is architecturally in keeping with the building there now," he said.

The most significant condition of the TPZ's approval was that Pequot Library work out a landscaping plan with Trinity Episcopal Church, which has a rectory next to the library, so a buffer was created between the library and rectory.

Snydacker said after the vote that the library planned to do that anyway. "We want to be the best of neighbors," he said.

Snydacker said Pequot Library hasn't selected a construction firm to build the addition and that the timing of when construction would start, while he hoped for next spring, would depend on fundraising and the economy.

Pequot Library receives only 30 percent of its operating budget from the town. The rest is raised through private donations and fundraisers, and the town hasn't pledged any money toward the library's expansion.