A battle is beginning to brew over the future of the Martin Luther King Jr. Library and whether the District should lease the historic building as office space to pay for a new $180 million central library.
Mayor Anthony Williams included a provision in a recently filed budget request that authorizes the city to lease the 30-year-old building, at 901 G St. NW, for 99 years to help fund the construction of a new state-of-the-art facility on the site of the former D.C. Convention Center.
In a letter sent to D.C. Council Chairman Linda Cropp and other officials on Monday, Council Member Kathy Patterson, D-Ward 3, said the provision is buried in a “a very complex piece of legislation.” While Patterson supports the proposal, she believes the lease provision should at least be considered as a separate piece of legislation.
“The decision about whether the District government finances and builds a new central library, with a projected cost of $180 million, will shape the future of library services for decades to come,” Patterson wrote. “I believe that the due diligence that such a project requires will be served better through separate consideration of this important proposal.”
Patterson postponed a public hearing on the provision that had been scheduled for Monday in order to push for a separate bill.
But Williams’ spokesman Vince Morris said “breaking out” the bill will only cause further delays.
“The need for a new flagship library is too great to split it from the budget,” he said. “That would jeopardize the whole project, delay it another year and risk losing the strong White House support we have for this initiative.”
Patterson said the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Library Task Force has already “been criticized for not being more open … and giving more consideration to the views of the public.”
Patterson said if the provision remains in the budget proposal, it “may not receive the attention that it deserves.”
