Read the article, "Dispute boils about downtown library funding," and then the comments that follow it.  The bottom line in this issue is that the population of the downtown library service area does not merit but maybe half of the current branch size.  Even that half size is only because common wisdom in the library industry is that 15,000 square feet is an optimal minimum.  Otherwise, much less square footage would be warranted.

The Main Library, the hub of the library system, will be at Independence Park.  The River Center Branch (RCB) is just that:  A BRANCH.  A branch is meant to serve the population in the area surrounding it.  Downtown's population size of about 15,000, even at a year 2020 estimation, justifies far less than 15,000 square feet, but it would get about that amount due to the optimum bump-up.  Obviously, that's a ratio of one person per square foot.

For comparison, the Jones Creek Regional Branch Library is a 34,750 square foot building, which serves a population of 91,821 today, with a projection of 99,718 in 2020.  Do the math.  That's 2.6423 persons per square foot today, projected to grow to 2.8696 in 2020.  The inverse of those figures is 0.3785 square foot per person today, decreasing to 0.3485 square foot per person in another ten years.

If you applied today's Jones Creek square foot per person ratio to today's downtown population (14,854), the yield would be a 5,622 square foot branch library.  And how big is the current RCB?  It is 29,950 square feet!  So, initial calculations would merit less than the area of one floor in the building.  Conventional library wisdom, however, calls for bumping that up to 15,000 square feet.  Based on the above figures and bump-up, then, only two of the four floors would be justified as a library branch for the downtown service area.  Library taxes can be justified to pay for necessary upgrades to those two floors.  Any icing on that cake should be paid for by non-library-tax funds.

The above concerns only population sizes as relates to square footages.  That's just for starters--more logic later.