Plans unveiled for new library in West Boynton

A second public library in West Boynton could open as early at the winter of 2019. The library will go up after a new park is rebuilt with soccer fields.

Some $18 million is set aside for the 30,000-square-foot Canyon Town Center Branch Library, Palm Beach County Library System Director Douglas Crane said at two meetings Monday.

The public gatherings were held in the West Boynton Branch Library, which will remain open.

Architects for the project will be chosen in the next few weeks, Crane said. Once that happens, the public will be asked for its input about the size of the meeting rooms and other library features, he said.

The new library will be built on a site that’s just south of the existing Canyon Town Center, a halfmile west of Florida's Turnpike on Boynton Beach Boulevard. The shopping and dining complex has an amphitheater and post office.

The developer GL Homes gave Palm Beach County the land for the library, Crane said. Half the site will be used for parking, he said.

This will be the first joint project with a new 52-acre park also going up on that site. That will be built in phases, starting with ballfields and a lake, said Richard Hedlund, a landscape architect for the county.

Both the park and the library will serve communities in West Boynton as well as more housing developments that are planned, said Todd Bonlarron, assistant county administrator. “We will work with our parks to do an efficient build. This is a long time coming for this region.”