Library in limbo

Author: Frank Matys

Date: Dec 10, 2009

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ORILLIA – Orillia’s library project faces an uncertain future because the city failed to do its homework, Coun. Ralph Cipolla alleges.
“We knew two years ago that there were … water problems in that area,” Cipolla said. “I guess we didn’t dig deep enough when we did the study. I guess the question I ask is, why we didn’t do it and whose liability is it if we can’t build on that site?”
Council committee this week deferred awarding the contract for construction of the new library pending the outcome of further study.
Prompting the decision was a privately commissioned peer review critical of a soil engineering report for the multi-million-dollar project.
The review, paid for by developer Angelo Orsi, claimed the engineering study failed to fully address the impact demolition and construction work will have on the neighbouring opera house.
Concerns include the potential for foundation damage at the opera house if the ground settles when water is pumped from the area to accommodate the library.
Neither does the study address the potential effect of construction-induced vibrations on the historic opera house, according to Inspec-Sol Inc., the firm responsible for the peer review.
Orsi expressed his concerns on a web site produced by himself and local resident Patrick Kehoe.
City staff and project consultants will study the peer review, said Mayor Ron Stevens.
“We are not the type of people that disregard something like this,” he told Orillia Today.
Stevens acknowledged that work done to date had focused on the library.
“Under the building code, they must have care and consideration for any buildings surrounding the construction site,” he said. “If those issues are not addressed prior to the building permit being provided, then they don’t get their building permit.”
Cipolla, however, argues a thorough investigation should have been done early on in the process.
“If we had awarded the contract now, we would have had major liability,” he said.
Orsi and Kehoe have recommended that a qualified structural engineer perform an assessment of the opera house, and that an extensive groundwater study be conducted.
Kehoe on Monday said he was “encouraged” by the decision to defer awarding the contract.
“There is a lot of work to do,” he said. “This is going to take several months, if not more.”
The deferral was the first of two setbacks for the project this week.
A motion that would have exempted the library from a bylaw requiring a fixed number of parking spaces for the new development was lost, leaving the matter of library parking in limbo.
‘It is ridiculous, frankly,” said Don Evans, a council representative on the library board.
Evans anticipates staff’s recommendation to allow the exemption will be reintroduced in the near future.
“When that happens, I hope there will be sufficient brains operating in the hall that evening to make it happen,” he added.
A recent study by MMM Group determined the library development would result in a shortfall of 74 parking spaces, though the firm said adequate parking exists within 250 metres of the site.
Orillia’s downtown management board has warned the loss of parking would negatively impact local business.