Last Spring, after the three submissions DMPED received in response to the RFP were presented to the public, six different community associations (in addition to the ANC and the Janney SIT) urged the rejection of all three offers. Here are the texts of those statements/resolutions:
FRIENDSHIP-TENLEYTOWN CITIZENS ASSOCIATION
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20016
Established 1892
APRIL 7, 2008
Dear Deputy Mayor,
Friendship-Tenleytown Citizens Association has conducted a survey of its members concerning the building of the new Tenley Friendship Library. As a result of this survey our members have voted by a vast majority for a free standing library on its own land without any buildings attached in any way.
Sincerely,
Marvin Tievsky
President
3810 Warren Street, N.W.
Wahington,D.C. 20016
********
Coalition to Stop Tenleytown Overdevelopment
Sent: Fri May 23 09:26:43 2008
Subject: Build the Tenley Library Now
On behalf of our members, the Executive Board of the Coalition to Stop Tenleytown Overdevelopment (CSTO) would like to commend DCPL for its announcement that construction of the new Tenley-Friendship branch library will soon begin.
For decades, the Tenley-Friendship branch served as the heart of our urban village, despite its ugly duckling architecture and flooded basement. In the last few years, however, its abandoned building joined the fire station and the Wilson pool as stark reminders of DC government’s failure to deliver basic public services to its residents.
So it is with great delight that we welcome the imminent reconstruction of our branch library under the leadership of DCPL’s new Chief, Ginnie Cooper. The exciting design that the Freelon Group has produced will not only welcome patrons back but will also serve as an icon for our neighborhood and a tangible symbol of DC government’s renewed investment in our long-neglected library system.
We look forward to becoming the envy of other Ward 3 neighborhoods and to helping spur demand for new branch construction throughout the city!
We do not support the library being held up while the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) continues to be debated. Any PPP on the library site risks extensive delays, which are unacceptable to our membership.We urge ANC 3E to adopt a resolution expressing the community’s gratitude to DCPL for working so hard and so intelligently to serve our public facilities needs and to give us a fine library to be complete and available to the community by 2010.
We do not support the library being held up while the Public-Private Partnership (PPP) continues to be debated. Any PPP on the library site risks extensive delays, which are unacceptable to our membership.We urge ANC 3E to adopt a resolution expressing the community’s gratitude to DCPL for working so hard and so intelligently to serve our public facilities needs and to give us a fine library to be complete and available to the community by 2010.
Paul Fekete
Jane Waldmann
Louis Wolf
Andra Tamburro
Carolyn Sherman
Board members, Coalition to Stop Tenleytown Overdevelopment (CSTO)
*****
Friendship Neighborhood Association
The board of directors of the Friendship Neighborhood Association categorically opposes the public-private partnership being pursued by the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Planning and Economic Development for the Tenley-Friendship Neighborhood Library/Janney Elementary School site.
This position reflects the majority opinion of upper Northwest residents. Notably, more than 75 percent of the individuals who submitted public comments on the proposals proffered by the three developers interested in the PPP rejected a mixed-use project on the library/school land.
FNA's board of directors is particularly troubled that ODMPED again has made the library rebuild part of the proposed PPP, citing community sentiment as the justification. This claim flagrantly misrepresents the neighborhood consensus. Just 18 percent of the people providing comments said that a new branch library should be included in any PPP.
We strongly support the D.C. Public Library's goal of rebuilding the Tenley-Friendship Library as a freestanding facility by early 2010. In our view, the building DCPL currently envisions will be able to deliver the multiple services residents expect from a neighborhood library while also making an architecturally significant statement on this part of upper Wisconsin Avenue.
At the same time, the board declares that the library rebuild should not be part of any possible PPP. Including it inevitably will lead to a delayed completion and a compromised design.
Friendship Neighborhood Association Board of Directors
David P. Frankel
Gina Mirigliano
Marilyn Simon
June 3, 2008
Susan MacKnight, FNA Secretary/Treasurer
*****
Friends of the Tenley Library
Dear Mayor Fenty,
The Executive Board of the Friends of Tenley Library is on record opposing further delay in constructing a full-service branch library for our community. Reconsideration of any public-private partnership will cause an unacceptable delay that will further deny the community full library services.
The Friends of Tenley Library (FOTL), was organized in 1973. The current membership is over 300 library users. FOTL is a non-profit organization with IRS 501(c)(3) status. The purpose of the group, as stated in the bylaws, is to "focus public attention on the Tenley-Friendship Library's services, facilities, and needs...to support and cooperate with the library in developing library services and facilities." Our members include young singles, parents, teachers, seniors, neighborhood organizations and businesses. We are part of the Friends of Libraries USA and the DC Federation of Friends. We are neither a pro-development nor an anti-development group. We are library advocates.
Our community, with its prime location near Ward 3's only Middle and High School, Janney Elementary School, St. Ann's Academy and several nursery schools, has been without a full service library since 2004. This is unacceptable. Enough time and money has been squandered on this effort.
We have the opportunity to move forward expeditiously. The DC Public Library produced a quality design that meets the criteria set forth by the Executive Board of the Friends of Tenley Library. Will you be present at the community meeting on June 11 at the interim library to see the final drawings from the award-winning firm?
The Board believes that reconsideration of a public-private partnership will cause an unacceptable delay.
The Board urges you to move forward with the design proposed by the library.
Sincerely yours,
Kathryn C. Ray
President
Friends of the Tenley Library
Sent 6/09/08
*****
Tenleytown Historical Society
Dear Mayor Fenty,
The Board of Directors and the membership of the Tenleytown Historical Society, founded in 1988, urgently request that the City drop the idea of a public-private venture between the Tenley-Friendship Library, Janney Elementary School, and a private developer, and allow the design and construction of the new library to proceed without delay. The architectural team chosen by DCPL has submitted an outstanding design and is proceeding on schedule with a project that is fully funded.
Since 2004 our community has been without a library and the Tenleytown Historical Society has been without a meeting place that is available free of charge–this has severely curtailed our activities. We are unwilling to submit to the inevitable delays that will result from involving the library in this public-private venture.
More importantly, the proposed site for the residential building to be constructed by the private developer is directly in the center of an educational complex consisting of the library and three historically significant structures: Janney Elementary School, St. Ann’s Church and Academy, and the Convent of Bon Secours. Of these, the Convent is already on the DC Register of Historic Sites and a nomination for Janney School is pending. While the library will be a twenty-first century building that does not attempt to mimic the diverse and distinctive architecture of the older surrounding buildings, it will have a similar educational function and be compatible in massing and scale. This compatibility plus the Commission of Fine Arts’ enthusiastic approval of the library design are an indication that this unique civic building could one day be worthy of historic designation.
It is the belief of the Tenleytown Historical Society that any further delay of the rebuilding of our library is unacceptable, and that the insertion of a residential structure into this complex of buildings dedicated for a century to educational use would be a terrible mistake.
Board of Directors
Jean Pablo
Jason Hegy
Carolyn Long
Jane Waldmann
Sent 6/09/08
*****
Tenleytown Neighbors Association
Whereas the District of Columbia Public Library (DCPL) has produced a design for the Tenley-Friendship Neighborhood Library that clearly demonstrates both an aspiration to excellence and an understanding of the value of civic architecture,
and
Whereas, we see our neighborhood library as a symbolic anchor for our community and the hub of a vibrant educational enclave,
and
Whereas, Tenleytown has been deprived of its branch library since 2004,
and
Whereas, the Tenleytown Neighbors Association, along with other community groups, had been meeting at the Library monthly at no cost and must now meet elsewhere at great expense and inconvenience,
and
Whereas, after repeated and thorough consideration of a variety of different public-private projects involving the library, we have seen that any such plan will involve substantial delays and will ultimately produce more constrained and less attractive public facilities, and capital funds have already been allocated to build the library that DCPL is proposing,
and
Whereas, DCPL is nearing completion of a final design that will allow a competitively selected contractor to break ground in the Fall of 2008,
Therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the Tenleytown Neighbors Association commends DCPL for its exciting design and its determination to replace the Tenley-Friendship Neighborhood Library by early 2010. We ask that the City listen to the strong consensus of community opinion that this library project,as conceived by DCPL, move forward expeditiously and that the public-private project be discontinued.
Approved by a vote of the membership and submitted 6/11/08
