Despite a smaller public turnout, the general consensus from Tuesday night’s Renton libraries meeting is that dialogue among the City of Renton, King County Library System and the public seems to be improving.

The open house was held to update community members on renovation plans for the downtown and Highlands branch libraries.

Speaking were KCLS director Bill Ptacek; KCLS facilities director Greg Smith; Doug Jacobson, Renton public works and transportation deputy administrator, and Peter Renner, Renton facilities director. Chip Vincent, the city’s community and economic development administrator, facilitated the discussion

About 10 people attended at City Hall’s Conference Center.

“It’s too bad there weren’t more people here, but it was a reasonable meeting,” said David Keyes. He is a member of the Renton Advocacy Coalition, a citizens group that is closely following the city’s library developments.

Keyes, along with other audience members, was glad there was an actual discussion between the speakers and the public. At the last open house meeting, there wasn’t, Keyes said.

It was difficult to hear all the questions being posed to the representatives, he said, and there were no KCLS staff members at the previous meeting.

Keyes understands there won’t always be KCLS representatives at the public meetings, but he called this exchange “productive.”

Ptacek explained how the construction and technical teams were currently doing site surveys and structural analysis. He called building a library over a river a “tricky proposition” and said that was fact and not conjecture.

Repeatedly he was peppered with detailed and technical questions from the audience that Ptacek said he did not have the expertise to answer.

“If they had the proper technical people to answer these questions that the people have, they would get more back and forth,” said Paul Ouellette after the meeting.

Ptacek was met with some criticism from the audience when he explained that technical experts from the design team could be available at the next meeting. He explained they weren’t at a point in the design process to have a technical discussion.

Some members of the audience felt that the next meeting would be too late to weigh in on the design aspects of the downtown library.

“I don’t think you have to worry that the design will be done in a month,” he said to the concern the public would be locked out of design issues.

Ptacek explained there are some ideas floating about using a raised floor plan to accommodate electrical and heating ventilation and air condition systems, but that’s it.

“Not a pencil to paper has come to doing any design work right now,” Ptacek told the audience.

Ptacek did say the design team does not intend to have consensus from the public on every decision that’s made and they won’t be available all the time.

Beth Asher, also of the citizen’s group, expressed concern the design team was trying to trigger only new construction codes and not treat the construction as a renovation retaining certain characteristics she felt the public deeply appreciates about the current library.

Vincent and Ptacek explained Renton city codes for construction and the library system’s intent to create libraries that meet a certain standard.

Keyes reminded the library project representatives that it is good taxpayer money that’s going into the projects.

Ptacek explained the amount of involvement with the public that KCLS is allowing is more than its other projects but not dissimilar.

The Highlands project is ahead of the downtown library work but still experiencing some hiccups.

That project still remains stalled because of contract work with the Renton Housing Authority, the City of Renton and KCLS that has to be resolved before they can go forward.

The biggest concern from the audience was traffic congestion and right-of-way issues around the proposed Highlands library site. There was also concern for creating a true mix of low-income housing options for the accompanying Sunset redevelopment project in the area.

More information about the libraries’ development is available on the City of Renton website. The next meeting is scheduled for 6 p.m. Nov. 13.