Lilburn proposes City Hall-library building

By Shane Blatt

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

In a few years, Lilburn residents could scrutinize the city budget and pore over "The Canterbury Tales," all at the same location.

Lilburn city leaders announced conceptual plans on Tuesday night for a new city hall on a five-acre site at Main and Church streets. What's different about the municipal hub: It could be a combined with a new county library.

In a move designed to save expenses and reshape the downtown district, Lilburn leaders said the city and county are collaborating to build a city hall-library complex, the first of its kind in Gwinnett County. Though nothing has been approved yet, county and library officials endorse the concept, city leaders said.

"In the times we're in, we don't have a huge reserve," Mayor Diana Preston said before her quarterly mayor's update meeting. "If we're going to have a city hall, we just about have to share resources."

Such savings would come from construction, maintenance and even parking, Preston said.

Lilburn planning director Doug Stacks told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he envisions a three-story, 44,000-square-foot building on top of a hill. The first floor would be reserved for the 20,000-square-foot library, with the municipal headquarters filling out the rest. Stacks couldn't put a price on the newfacility, but he noted it would be paid for with 2009 county and city special purpose local option sales tax, or SPLOST.

The building would dovetail into the city's plans to realign Main Street, with the city-county facility anchoring a new downtown district that would welcome for redevelopment, Stacks said.

"What we're trying to do with the realignment is to create some new ground ... get rid of something old and replace it with something new," Stacks told residents.

If city, county and library board officials all get on board, the groups will need to work out details for design, construction and transition. That could take about 2-1/2 years, City Manager Bill Johnsa said.

The proposal also would allow the city to do something different with one of the properties it bought last year for two separate buildings, City Manager Bill Johnsa said.

In early 2009, Lilburn had plans for a new 30,000-square-foot city hall at U.S. 29 and Main Street. In April, the city bought land for the proposed library, one of two library relocation projects in the works in Gwinnett County.

A short time later, the city began revisiting its plans.

"We thought, ‘Why can't they be together?'" Johnsa said. "And why not put them in the same building?"

Tuesday's announcement comes two weeks after Lilburn dropped out of a 15-city alliance that has been battling Gwinnett County for more than two years over services provided to the cities. The mayor said she recognizes other cities might see a connection between the two announcements. She just wants to do what she believes is best for Lilburn.

"We're looking for the best value for the dollar," Preston said. " We're thinking a little bit differently than some of the other cities."

Joan Clipp, a 14-year residents, supports the concept.

"I'm a book geek," she said. "It'll save money and it's easy access. I think it's brilliant."