South Branch Public Meeting 2 Presentation


Audience shotOn May 7th, nearly 40 patrons of the Cleveland Public Library and residents of the surrounding Tremont and Clark-Fulton neighborhoods attended the second South Branch public meeting. It was the first in the second round of public meetings for the Community Vision Plan engagement process, which also includes the Fleet, Woodland, and Sterling branch libraries. Held at Lincoln-West High School, the South Branch meeting opened with remarks from Thomas D. Corrigan, President of the Board of Trustees of the Cleveland Public Library, reiterating the fact that no decisions have been made by CPL regarding the future use of the historic Carnegie library building. He further stated that the Community Vision Plan is the process to gather the public feedback required to make a decision about the building location and other important South Branch library services.

Following Mr. Corrigan’s introduction, David Jurca from Kent State University’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC) presented an overview of the public feedback received thus far from the South Branch community. Input from library patrons, local residents, and other stakeholders were collected through an Advisory Committee, the first Public Meeting, online surveys, and focus group sessions.

Attendees were provided time for public comment after the presentation, then given additional opportunities to share their ideas through engagement stations setup around the room. If you weren’t able to attend the meeting, please feel free to view the presentation slides below or download a PDF of the document here.

The archival letter shown in the presentation, which mentions the original plan for an addition on the Carnegie South building can be downloaded here. If you’re interested in learning more about the branch’s history, correspondence letters between the architects of the Carnegie South building and the Cleveland Public Library’s William H. Brett are available here.

Based on feedback gathered at the second public meeting and previous input, a draft report will be created to be reviewed by the South Branch Advisory Committee in early June. The final report for all four branches in the current group of Community Vision Plan branches, including South, will be submitted to the CPL Board for review in late June.

For comments or inquiries regarding the Community Vision Plan process, please visit our Contact page.