Ex-Richmond Beach library may be office space

A proposed amendment to the Shoreline Development Code would allow the former Richmond Beach Library building to be used as professional offices.

The city’s Planning Commission recommended approving the amendment following a public hearing at a Dec. 19 meeting. The City Council will consider the commission’s recommendation at its Jan. 13 meeting, city planner Brian Krueger said.

The amendment, Krueger said, would allow reuse of library facilities as professional offices. While the former Richmond Beach Library is the only building in the city that presently would be affected, Krueger said the amendment would apply to all libraries. There are two active libraries in Shoreline, the new Richmond Beach facility and Shoreline Library at NE 175th Street and Fifth Ave. NE.

“Most of the discussion was about the amendment applying to just one property,” Krueger said of the commission meeting. The motion to recommend approval passed on a 5-2 vote, with Sidney Kuboi and David Harris voting against, Krueger said.

The amendment is being proposed by Mike McMahon, a real estate appraiser with a firm in North City.

“We own the property at 185th and 15th,” McMahon said of the firm’s office in North City. “But we’ve got a pending sale.”

McMahon said he and his partners bought the of Richmond Library property without assurances that they could use it for professional offices, although most other kinds of offices are allowed in the present development code.

“The city told us it was an oversight,” McMahon said recently. “We took a calculated risk.”

McMahon said he and his partner, former planning commission member Kevin McAuliffe, came up with the code amendment solution.

McMahon said that if the amendment is approved, they plan to remodel the interior of the former library but will likely leave the exterior much the same as it is. McMahon said any historical value to the building is sentimental.

“Remodeling in the ’50s probably destroyed any value,” he said.

“We talked to the Richmond Beach Community Association and told them what we were planning,” McMahon said. “They said, ‘OK.’ We talked to (neighbor) next door and they said. ‘OK.’

“So, we made a run at it.”