{"id":1998,"date":"2026-06-08T12:06:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T12:06:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=1998"},"modified":"2026-06-08T12:06:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T12:06:26","slug":"wake-county-could-move-athens-drive-library-to-cary-locals-hope-it-wont","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/durhammovinghub.com\/?p=1998","title":{"rendered":"Wake County could move Athens Drive library to Cary. Locals hope it won\u2019t."},"content":{"rendered":"

A southwest Raleigh library needs to move, and people who use it are concerned it could go to Cary.<\/p>\n

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The Wake County Board of Commissioners will discuss the Athens Drive Community Library\u2019 at a work session at 12:30 p.m. Monday in the commissioners\u2019 chambers at the Wake County Justice Center on South McDowell Street in Raleigh.<\/p>\n

The Athens Drive Library is the only Wake County public library, out of more than 20, inside a school.<\/p>\n

The county is looking for a new location for multiple reasons:<\/p>\n

In March, the commissioners directed county officials to negotiate a price for a 2.6-acre piece of land about a quarter mile north of the library\u2019s current location for a replacement library.<\/p>\n

The owner of the property, called the Well Fed Community Garden locally, originally asked for about $1.8 million.<\/p>\n

The county’s assessed value of the property is $1.2 million.<\/p>\n

After negotiating, the county managed to get the price down to just under $1.6 million.<\/p>\n

According to a presentation Jacobs prepared for Monday\u2019s meeting, the Well Fed Community Garden property is small, making it difficult and expensive to develop.<\/p>\n

It would be a two-story library with no room for future expansion.<\/p>\n

A site in Cary more than two miles southwest of the current library, at 5417 Tryon Road has about 12 acres owned by Wake County Public Schools and is considered surplus land.<\/p>\n

Wake County hasn\u2019t figured out what a potential acquisition of the land from the school system would take, but a land swap is potentially in the cards, according to Jacobs\u2019 presentation.<\/p>\n

But the site \u201ceasily accommodates future expansion and\/or other uses such as affordable housing\u201d the presentation says.<\/p>\n

Raleigh City Council member Jane Harrison, who represents southwest Raleigh, has spoken against the library moving to Cary, which she said would serve a wealthier, whiter population.<\/p>\n

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The U.S. Census tract with the Cary site has a higher population \u2014 4,600 to the Athens Drive area\u2019s 4,000. A census tract is a small division of land that the U.S. Census Bureau tracks population statistics within.<\/p>\n

The Athens Drive area has roughly an 18% poverty rate to the Cary area\u2019s roughly 3%, however. And the median household income in that part of Cary, at almost $180,000, is nearly double what it is around Athens Drive.<\/p>\n

And while bus routes run very close to the proposed Cary location, the site is farther from a bus stop, Harrison said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is almost a half-mile walk to the bus stop on Jones Franklin Road which only connects the site to Cary, not the Raleigh community that Athens Drive Community Library currently serves,\u201d Harrison wrote in an email to The News & Observer. \u201cIt requires walking across 6-8 lanes of traffic on a busy road to get to the nearest bus stop. It is not walkable to neighborhoods. While there may be a sidewalk, this is not a safe nor enjoyable area for pedestrians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hannah McKenzie lives on Athens Drive and goes to the library at least once a week with her two sons. She said she hoped her sons, at 13 years old and 9 years, would be able to walk to their local library.<\/p>\n

\u201cMoving it three miles away would not be a replacement,\u201d McKenzie said. \u201cIt would be an entirely new library.\u201d<\/p>\n

For her and others in the area, the library is more than just a building. It\u2019s a community space. She said that professors, graduate students from North Carolina State University, and people in the immigrant community use the library.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe community clearly wants it here,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Dynestie Robinson, who also lives nearby, said that she used the library growing up.<\/p>\n

For her, it was a place of respite from domestic violence at her home, she said.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s now a social worker, and she says that the library provides a place of respite for the entire community.<\/p>\n

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But Robinson said she doesn\u2019t drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would not go to that Cary location,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Wake County board will discuss a proposed Cary location for the Athens Drive Community Library amid worries about equity, walkability and service loss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1997,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read-todays-edition"],"yoast_head":"\nWake County could move Athens Drive library to Cary. 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