Nearly a thousand days after Gov. Wes Moore joined Howard County officials to announce grand plans for a glassy $144 million library along Columbia’s lakefront, the County Council voted Monday night to move forward with the project, though the final structure could end up looking quite different.

The council voted 4 to 1 to adopt a resolution to purchase the lakefront parcel from the Howard Research and Development Corporation, a subsidiary of Howard Hughes, the master developer for downtown Columbia. Earlier Monday night, the council by the same margin approved a budget amendment to allow design work to begin.

County councilmember Liz Walsh lamented the project delays but said she was pleased to see it moving forward.

“This is a great project — for it to come to fruition — for both county taxpayers, schools, everyone involved, even Howard Hughes,” Walsh said. “It should be a win-win, and I think that that is still accomplishable.”

Councilmember Deb Jung cast the sole dissenting vote for both the resolution and the budget amendment.

“Well, libraries are great places, and an iconic library on the lakefront would be wonderful if this county didn’t have other massive capital obligations that must be addressed sooner rather than later,” Jung said before the resolution vote.

She added, “I can’t commit to a new library when school buildings are crumbling and kids are crammed in closets serving as classrooms. I can’t commit to something like this when our hospital is under-capacity and the wait times in the ER are hours long. I can’t commit to a land purchase when I don’t know the sale price.”

Big announcement, then delays

Accompanied by Moore, County Executive Calvin Ball announced plans for the new library in March 2023, saying that it would represent “a giant leap for our future.“

However, the project stalled amid questions about the county’s acquisition of the land and concerns about the $144 million price tag, parking and even whether the lakefront site was the best location for a library. Some wanted to see the new one built near the current Central Branch, located off Little Patuxent Parkway.

To jump-start the project, Ball announced significant changes in October. He said he backed the county acquiring the land where the library would be built from the Howard Hughes subsidiary. Ball also submitted a budget amendment to allow the county to begin using allocated state funding to design the state-of-the-art library. The state has committed $10 million to the project, but Walsh said she hopes to see lawmakers provide more funding.

Howard County had paired the library project with plans for new housing.

With the council approving the land acquisition, the Howard Research and Development Corporation “will convey a parcel” in the Merriweather District for planned affordable housing, according to county officials.

Ball has also agreed to look at ways to reduce the price tag. Under the new plan, the county will work with Howard Hughes and other unnamed parties on alternative parking solutions that could bring the cost down. The county will prepare a new cost estimate after selecting a design firm and moving ahead with other planning efforts.

County officials will seek to advance library designs this winter, with the goal of presenting a spending plan in the spring. Construction on the new library is expected to start in 2028, according to an October county presentation.

The case for the new library and affordable housing units can be found in the Downtown Columbia Plan, a 30-year master plan approved by the council in 2010 and amended in 2016.

The plan provides guidance and recommendations on how to redevelop downtown with respect to the environment, land use, housing, transportation and design.

After the library is completed, the existing central branch, which opened in 1981, will be demolished and the site will be turned into 200 mixed-income housing units.