After holding public hearings May 18, June 1 and June 18, the ZBA voted 2 to 2 with one abstention after the final hearing. An application must have four votes in its favor to receive a variance. According to the meeting's minutes, members expressed concern over several issues: "the safety and welfare of the Town has not been proven, not enough alternatives have been examined, would have liked to hear more about buying the property behind the Library and the [ZBA] does not consider financial hardships."
Based on the proposed designs, the expansion would have resulted in a 5,300-square-foot addition split between two floors, one of which would be a basement, so as to not obstruct the existing building's second story. The addition would house a new circulation desk, a young adult area, a children's room, an Internet and technology area and private staff areas, all alleviating the library's current crunch for general and shelf space. Most notably, with the installation of an elevator, a ramp entrance and three wheelchair accessible restrooms, the library would finally be in compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
With an approval from the Historic District Commission Jan. 6, the Building Committee approached the ZBA, seeking a variance with regard to lot coverage. The minimum lot size for properties within the GR-1 zone is set at three quarters of an acre, with the regulations prohibiting lot coverage in excess of 20 percent. As it stands now, the library covers 12 percent of a 0.4-acre lot. With the addition, the structure would cover roughly 30 percent of the property.
In the application, library representatives argued a hardship existed based on lot size and the building's age and historical nature, having been constructed in 1893, some 80 years before the town established zoning regulations.
"The fact that it's a historic building precludes us from doing certain things," Mr. Bhumgara explained, commenting that the size of the expansion has emerged as the largest concern.
Discussion at ZBA meetings included suggestions of building more to the east or south, as well as purchasing the property directly behind the library as a measure to diminish the addition's impact.
Three years ago, the library board considered buying the abutting property, which is owned by Dr. Sandy Mirabile, who objected to the proposed expansion at the June 18 meeting. The two parties were in negotiations when the library decided not to move forward with the purchase, citing a lack of use for the lot.
As for reducing the addition's size, the Building Committee is hesitant.
"We retained Nolan Lushington so he could guide us on what dimensions we needed for various areas," said Mr. Bhumgara. "We did not come up with these dimensions arbitrarily."
Mr. Lushington, a former director of the Greenwich Library and library expert of Lushington Associates, has consulted for some 250 libraries around the state and the Northeast. Cutting two feet from one corner and another three elsewhere could dramatically shift the designs and potentially exclude one of the addition's features, such as the young adult or children's area. Maintaining the handicap improvements also remains a priority.
The Building Committee can choose one of two responses to the ZBA's decision. It can present a different application and set of plans at any time or resubmit the same plans in six months. Based on the value of Mr. Lushington's advice and the investment in the current designs, it seems more likely the library representatives will opt for the latter, taking the opportunity to explain in full the alternatives the Building Committee did explore.
"This project is not done," said library board of trustees and Building Committee member Meg Szalewicz. "It's not dead in the water."