Several weeks after Half Moon Bay Library staff held the first of several meetings to poll community members about a new library, ideas are rapidly emerging, and more meetings to refine them will take place soon.
Beginning in April, library staff held formal and informal open house and community meetings at the library, Shoreline Station and the Coastside Farmers Market, to gather feedback from the public as to what features it wanted in a new library.
Meeting organizers used “information boards,” or 8-foot-high black boards on which photos representing design ideas and options were posted, to present a broad range of ideas contributed by the public. Attendees then posted colored dots to indicate support or thumbs-down for each idea.
Further meetings this month are designed to refine those ideas, said library Branch Manager Annie Malley. A third round, scheduled for June, will continue to hone and refine the ideas and feedback.
As the process continues, Malley said, library staff will revisit earlier meeting locations or approach new ones, in order to bring the information boards to as broad a spectrum of community members as possible. She said they will visit schools, Pescadero, eateries like Happy Taco, and Senior Coastsiders to get feedback from the community’s youth, Spanish speakers, and senior citizens.
“We want to touch as many people as possible,” Malley said.
She said the meetings have brought in feedback from around 900 Coastsiders, and organizers hope for more.
Early meetings she said, focused on desired library programs and site strategy, including rough layout of the proposed building’s interior and exterior. From those meetings emerged a preliminary idea of a two-story library building, with space and facilities for children and teens on the first floor and meeting rooms and space for adults and community rooms on the second.
Round 1 began with a basic question: What do you want in your library? Attendees each had colored adhesive dots to attach to ideas they either favored or wanted nixed.
In order of popularity, the desired aspects of a new library that emerged from those meetings, Malley said, were a children’s space, digital lab, “people spaces” where library patrons could sit, read, study or meet, a cafe offering coffee or light refreshments, space for teens, a quiet study area, space for technology where computers would be available, a gaming room with digital and/or board games and “collaborative” space such as a meeting or community room.
Early rounds also touched on exterior design. Attendees looked at photos meant to represent aspects of the exterior including: warm and inviting (wood décor), sustainable, rural and rustic (wood and a peaked roof), something that would fit the overall area (landscaping and plants) or expressive (multiple or bold colors).
Each round tightened up and customized the initial ideas a little, said Malley. “We kept going deeper into the plan” as the process continued, she said.
Round 3 will delve more deeply into ideas that came out of Rounds 1 and 2.
The third stage will seek to polish and flesh out specific ideas presented in preliminary rounds. For example, just how big should the children’s area be? What special areas might still be needed?
“We keep getting deeper in,” Malley reiterated, adding that suggestions for more ideas and more options are welcome.
Landscaping is another aspect that is going through the scrutiny of the process. Proposed ideas include landscaping in a coastal theme, or xeriscape which indicates a low-water, sustainable landscaping, or lush landscaping.
The meetings scheduled for the third round include an open house from 4 to 6 p.m. and a community meeting from 7 to 9 p.m. on Thursday, June 5, at the Half Moon Bay Library at 620 Correas St. in Half Moon Bay, and 9 a.m. to noon at New Leaf Community Market, and 1 to 4 p.m. at BrazzleBerry in Strawflower Village, Saturday, June 7.
Feedback from Coastside community groups is welcome, said Malley. “Any group which wants us to bring the boards to, we’ll bring them,” she said.
Results so far are posted on the Web at www.smcl.org/en/content/library-building-projects.
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