A new location for Sudbury's library and art gallery

Sudbury's future library and art gallery will have a new home on Shaughnessy St. beside the Sudbury Theatre Centre.

The development of this project has beenheld up by the delays with the Kingsway Entertainment District. The KED is currently waiting to go through the Local Planning Appeal Tribunal, but the process is both slow and confusing and the timeline for the development is unknown at this point.

Originally the library and art gallery was set to be located on the current site of the Sudbury arena as part of The Junction.But until the KED is built and the Sudbury Wolves have a new home, development can't start on the library and art gallery.

The Junction is the name given to two separateprojects that are planned to be connected, one the library and art gallery, the other is a convention and performance centre. The original plan saw the library and art gallery at the Sudbury arena and the convention and performance centre facing it from across Minto St.

In February, council directed staff to look into new locations for the library and art gallery, so development on the project can begin rather than waiting for decisions about the KED.

Ian Wood,the city's interim general manager of community development says moving the location to Shaughnessy St. will help the project stay closer to the original timeline. He says there are additional benefits to moving the location.

"There is a potential to work cooperatively with those land owners to either integrate into the project or expand the land availability. We have had positive discussions with both the Sudbury Theatre Centre and the Sudbury Multicultural and Folk Arts Association," he said.

"Obviously it's a highly visible location along Paris Street, we still can maintain a linkage to the convention and performance centre as envisioned."

Parking issues

Wood says the vision of The Junction was to have the two projects connected adding the city is looking at creative ways to keep the library and art gallery connected to the convention and performance centre, to keep the vision of The Junction intact.

"Although we believe we can connect them, certainly the vision of two buildings facing each other across Minto St. is compromised in this situation," said Wood.

Parking in the downtown will be another challenge, says Wood, moving the location to Shaughnessy St. means downtown will lose about 100 parking spots.

Wood says the city is looking into options to create more parking, including a possible underground parking lot at the site.