Library Parking Lot: Some Trees Could Be Replanted

If all goes as planned, some trees at the Palm Harbor Library could end up being transplanted to another area, instead of being cut down to make way for the expansion of the library's parking lot.

"I walked in one morning, I saw all these white ribbons on the trees and said, 'Oh my God are all the trees being taken down?'," said Palm Harbor Library Director Gene Coppola of the trees marked by designers who were working on the parking lot expansion.

The new staff parking lot will be constructed on the southeastern portion of the library property just south of the current book return drive-thru. A green space is located there now.

Coppola said he asked the designer about ribbons on the trees in the green space and the designer told him, "We're looking at all the possible trees we're taking out. It doesn't mean they'll all be taken out."

Coppola believes that two oak trees, four cypress trees and two crepe myrtle trees will be replanted.

"They'll probably be placed in the islands where the parking lots are because its kind of bare and they want to spruce that area up," he said.

Construction on the project is scheduled to start in May at the latest. Coppola says it should only take a couple days to complete the new parking lot, which will have 22 spaces.

He estimates the total cost to be under $50,000. Of that, $19,450 would pay for the design and up to $30,000 for the construction. No taxpayer dollars will be used to pay for the parking lot. The money will be donated by the Palm Harbor Library Foundation.

Related-

• Palm Harbor Library to Expand Parking Lot

The Palm Harbor Library is located at 2330 Nebraska Ave., (727) 784-3332

Subscribe to the Palm Harbor Patch newsletter to have local news delivered to your email each day. Sign up here.