Administrator: library remains an aspirational item in 20-year capital plan; six-year plan omits it

Mark White, the city's administrator, briefed the Liberty Lake Library Board on the city's ongoing 20-year capital facilities planning effort and clarified where the library project currently sits in the planning documents.

"We're in the process of going through the development of its 20 year capital facilities plan," White said, explaining the exercise is tied to the comprehensive-plan update. He added that the city continues to prepare annual six-year capital plans required in budget development while using the 20-year outlook to document long-term aspirational needs.

White said the library project was removed from the adopted six-year capital facilities plan during the 2025 budget process and is now placed downstream in the 20-year table, with some entries spanning design, programming and construction over several years. "Part of that is design, part of that is programming, part of that is construction, and you don't know where that's going to start. And so we put it in over three years to just give a realistic estimate of when that may occur," he said.

Board members asked how the two planning documents differ and how the library would fit into a broader facilities vision that includes town hall, parks and schools. White said the 20-year plan is largely aspirational beyond the six-year horizon and is meant to document square-footage deficits identified in the adopted master facilities plan. He noted the city currently projects buildout around 2042 and estimated a population of roughly 23,000.

White also reminded the board that a school-district representative (Gerald Lisonbee) sits on the working group to coordinate district needs with city planning. The administrator said other site-specific decisions (where a future library would be sited, exact size and phasing) still need to be developed as the project window approaches and as funding decisions are made.

Separately, White noted the city is collecting bids for a new city hall; he said the contract award is expected to be announced at the March 3 city council meeting and that meeting locations could shift to the new city hall around May 2027 once that project progresses.

Board members asked follow-up questions about design, transportation, and school capacity as the city grows; White and the board agreed those planning conversations would resume as the library project window approaches.