Denver Public Libraries is seeking approximately $100 million from the City and County of Denver’s 2017 general obligation bond program for several library facility improvement projects, along with one possible new facility.

City librarian Michelle Jeske outlined the requests, with the first phase focused on $50 million worth of work at the main library building, to the City Council’s Safety, Housing, Education and Homelessness Committee Wednesday, Feb. 1.

The city’s 2007 general obligation bond program, dubbed the Better Denver bond program, authorized $550 million for 380 capital improvement projects. Funds came from a 2.5 property tax mill levy that did not require voter approval since it came from the city’s existing property tax.

The 2017 general obligation bond program is likely to be between $500 million to $600 million, with a better idea of how large an issue to place on next fall’s election ballot in Denver known in the spring or summer. Community meetings to gather comments from citizens were held last fall. A list of projects is to be finalized and presented to the public and City Council in the spring and summer. City Council would then be asked to place a bond issue ballot question before voters.

Jeske told the committee the library’s facilities master plan was developed last year and projects at nine branch libraries and three new branches were funded in the 2007 program.

“We’re looking at improvements to the main library this year, along with branches that weren’t included last time,” she said.

The first phase of $50 million in requested work at the 540,000 square-foot central library at Broadway and 14th Avenue, which opened in 1995, would include more use of the north lawn for children’s programs and would require a secure boundary, Jeske added. That secure boundary would not be in the form of a wall, but something to “keep the kids from running out onto Broadway but still allowing visibility.

“Right now the Broadway side of the building is not very inviting.”

Other work would renovate inside space for an events center that would be available for rent after hours, Jeske said, relocating the children’s library to the north side of the building, creating a teen space area on the second floor, replacing as many as six elevators and addressing “significant” heating and air conditioning issues throughout the building.

She added that the plan is to make changes to the central library without closing it to the public. “We know that adds to the cost, but our libraries really cannot function without the central library.”

Eight branch libraries – Smiley, Byers, Athmar Park, Ross-University Hills, Pauline Robinson, Ross-Barnum, Eugene Field, and the Blair-Caldwell African-American Research Library – would also see approximately $13 million in renovation and improvements of various kinds and sizes, many to address the age and increasing demand for more space in the small buildings.

Also included in the library’s bond funding request is a new West Denver joint library and recreation center, to be operated by the libraries and the city Parks and Recreation Department. Jeske said such a facility would help accommodate neighborhoods that have little to no access to much-needed cultural and recreational facilities. The proposal could create an up to 20,000 square-foot library, she noted.

Along with the general obligation bond program, the library would seek funding help from the Friends of the Denver Public Library group, apply for grants and consider using some of the library’s annual capital improvement project funds.