The Winter Park Public Library’s plan to move out of their current location in downtown Winter Park and over to Martin Luther King Jr. Park (which we wrote about HERE last June) will now be in the hands of Winter Park residents at next March’s election.

The library’s planned move is getting plenty of feedback from the public and not all of it is positive. In preparation for the upcoming election, the library has launched an information campaign to combat any misgivings the public may have about the project.

While there is no unified opposition to the move, library staff told Bungalower that there is a large number of vocal residents that believe the move is the wrong thing to do.

Common complaints against the project include:

  • “Why take a City amenity and move it to an architecturally generic area of town rather than keep it in the heart of downtown?”
  • “MLK Jr. Park is too far from downtown to continue serving its current users.”
  • “The proposed library would take away from precious green space.”

Residents will have a chance to hear the Winter Park Public Library’s answers to these questions at a number of public information meetings  before the election. To keep updated on when those meetings will occur, follow along on their website HERE.

An advocacy group called Yes For Winter Park Library is also available for reference HERE. The group is not run by the library.

WPPL staff is also able to answer questions pertaining to the new library and events center.

Based on findings by the City-appointed Library Taskforce, the cost to renovate or rebuild the current library building was originally estimated to be around $22M compared to the estimated $15M price tag of relocating to MLK Jr. Park. The amount on the ballot caps the project budget at $30M.

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Brendan O'Connor

Editor in Chief of Bungalower.com

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  1. I have edited my comment. I mean to convey my detestation of such a frivolous complaint from my neighbors. Keep up your wonderful work!