A new Bellevue library has been selected and plans are underway to acquire the property, Metro officials have announced.
The Nashville Library Board on Tuesday unanimously approved the four-acre site on the grounds of Bellevue Middle School at Baugh and Colice Jeanne roads.
The Nashville Public Library is working with Metro Nashville Public Schools to acquire the property, and the transaction will require approval from the Metro School Board. Metro’s Fiscal Year 2010 capital spending plan contains $1 million for land acquisition. Construction costs are estimated at $10 million and would need to be approved by the Metro Council in the city’s next capital spending plan.
Plans call for an approximately 25,000-square-foot library, five times the size of the existing 5,000-square-foot library. The new library is expected to open during the second half of 2013.
“It is exciting to think about the possibilities of shared resources and programming between Bellevue Middle School and a new library right next door,” Mayor Karl Dean said in a release. “When it opens, the new Bellevue library will have more books, computers and larger spaces for children and teen areas.
Dean credited Metro Council members Bo Mitchell, Charlie Tygard and Sheri Weiner for their efforts to bring the facility to Bellevue.
“We are delighted to move ahead with the new Bellevue Branch Library,” Donna Nicely, director of the Nashville Public Library, said in the release. “We look forward to providing the wide array of programs and services so long awaited by the Bellevue community.”
The new location is less than half a mile from the existing library at 650 Colice Jeanne Road. The current library, which opened in 1984, is part of a complex that includes a fire station and community center and does not include suitable space for expansion.
Metro had initially planned to locate a new library at the Bellevue Mall but changed course after redevelopment plans for the mall did not come together.