The Port Moody library is conducting an online survey to determine how it should change and grow in the coming years.
The survey, that runs until March 11, asks respondents to rank library services that are important to them as well as what sorts of services they’d like to see should it get the go-ahead to build a new facility.
In May 2023, library board chair Daphne Herberts told Port Moody council the city’s lone library in the civic centre is running out of space to be able to provide the type of programming residents are demanding.
“There’s not enough room for all the materials residents want,” she said, adding the library can’t provide maker spaces, computer labs or meeting rooms.
“It means we’re unable to experiment or innovate like other libraries."
A consultant’s report prepared in 2017 recommended expansion of the library from 12,500 to 42,500 sq. ft.
Herberts said there have been several overtures to expand the library since it was opened in 1995, but none have gone anywhere.
In 2006, council endorsed the creation of a committee to plan for the library’s expansion and two years later a budget to expand the current building was included in Port Moody’s five-year capital plan. It was removed, though, in 2008.
In 2018, a plan by the city to sell the old firehall site at Ioco Road and Murray Street to a private developer for construction of a high-density mixed-use neighbourhood that could have included space for a new library was scuttled by a special referendum question included on ballots for that year’s civic election.
“There is considerable history,” Herberts said, adding the firehall site's central location and large size would be perfect for a new library large enough to serve the community for years to come.
Marc Saunders, Port Moody library’s director, said with more people moving to the city, pressure on the existing facility is growing.
“We need more space rather than just keeping up with the status quo.”
