ShawneeDispatch.com

Two Shawnee sites have been named as the most likely locations for a Monticello branch of the Johnson County Library.

In an attempt to update the Johnson County Library Board on all progress made for a Monticello branch before her retirement later this month, County Librarian Mona Carmack identified several sites that have been considered in the past and two that seem the most likely at this time. However, Carmack cautioned that the sites are still tentative and it is too soon to know if either will be found suitable upon further investigation.

Carmack laid out the history of the search for a Monticello site in a letter delivered to the library board at its Dec. 20 meeting.

"I was just emptying out my head of everything I have done on finding that site since 2001," Carmack said last week.

In the letter, Carmack designated two locations currently under consideration -- a site at Clear Creek Parkway and Woodsonia Drive in the Grey Oaks commercial development and a possible joint project with the city of Shawnee's western pool on property the city is investigating at 61st and Woodland Drive.

The Monticello branch is to serve an area between Woodland Drive and De Soto and south to Kansas Highway 10. With the current population estimated at 23,000 and growing, the library was designated to be 35,000 square feet.

Previous focus groups had determined that the library should be easily accessible with no traffic congestion.

In their preliminary site plans approved by the city, R.H. Johnson Companies, developer of the Grey Oaks site, identified a 4.1-acre site on the southwest corner of Woodsonia Drive and Clear Creek Parkway as appropriate for a library.

Rodrock Development, property owner, first approached the library in October of 2006 about the site, which would cost $1.07 million, Carmack's letter said. She pointed out several benefits to the location -- utilities provided, roads constructed by the developer, high visibility and access from arterial roads.

It is also located in a heavily populated area, close to several De Soto School District Schools and Sacred Heart Catholic School. Carmack noted it is accessible, but not in an area of potential traffic congestion, and was more convenient for western Lenexa residents.

The 27-acre site at 61st and Woodland Drive is currently under study by the city for its western pool, but Carmack said if this site is considered, the library concept would have to be re-evaluated. In her letter, Carmack said the city's pool site would serve the immediate neighborhood but would not serve the population in Lenexa or west of K-7 in Shawnee.

The pool site might work better, she noted, if the library decided to sell its Lackman branch and move that library to Lenexa's City Center development at 87th Street and Renner Road. That would then serve all Lenexa residents, and the Monticello branch could be reduced to about 25,000 square feet.

In her letter, Carmack said a better comparison between the two sites would be made if Shawnee develops a site plan for a west pool and library, though last week, she stressed that all conjecture on sites for the Monticello branch is extremely premature.

Other sites Carmack said had been investigated in the past included two donated sites in Shawnee, one at Shawnee Mission Parkway and Woodland and another on 53rd Street west of K-7. The former, with a large hillside, was found to have prohibitive costs for site work, and the latter was found to be too remote from major streets.

Two sites were considered near 83rd Street and K-7 in Lenexa, and another at the Mill Creek Middle School site, but each was found to have space limitations or accessibility and visibility problems.

The library also considered purchasing the former Westside Family Church building at Shawnee Mission Parkway and Monticello Road, but at $3.1 million, the cost was too high.

The county approved a $100,000 allocation in 2003 to be set aside for a possible option on the Monticello branch property. It remains in a project account and can be used at any time. The library's 2007 special-use budget also includes $88,000, allocated from the library's fund balance, to pay the first year of debt service if a property is purchased for $1 million.