Little librarian Stacy Holmes: Photo by Danny Fulgencio
Remember that Little Free Library on Lynbrook that the City of Dallas told the Holmes family to remove at risk of a citation and possible forced removal? The case caused quite a bit of buzz back in April. Neighbors who liked the little library were upset. The builder, mom Stacy Holmes, reached out to several city officials and the director of libraries. She seemed to have the masses on her side. Things went into a sort of limbo. Holmes left the little library as is and, for a while, things were what she calls “joyfully quiet.”
She and everyone else who could not believe she was in trouble for the diminutive book barn sort of hoped the haters had experienced a change of heart and that everyone — city and neighbors alike — would love and accept the little library. For a while, she waited for the other shoe to drop but, eventually everyone relaxed and made happy use of the structure.
“It’s still a wonderful surprise to open our library doors and notice new book donations, and to see visitors utilizing the library from our living room window,” she says.
A second Lynbrook Little Free Library is even in the works at another residence, she adds.
But Lynbrook’s big little-library problems had not gone away. More than six months after the first violation warning, Dallas Code Compliance showed back up at the Holmes’ door yesterday.
“Officers just left my home and informed me that the library is still in violation and must be removed,” Holmes tells us. “They allowed me one week — they offered me some options, such as relocating the library behind my home or putting the library on wheels, so I could wheel it in and out every day,” she explains. “They warned me that if we did not do this in a week that we would be issued a citation and they would also seek a warrant to come and forcibly remove it, turning it into trash at that point.”
Back when we wrote the first story, then-councilman Jerry Allen expressed his distaste with residents who complain over things like this — because, after all, none of this would be happening if someone had not filed a code complaint through the city’s 311 line (we verified this). The city has no choice other than to address neighbor-on-neighbor complaints, Allen told us at the time.
“The code people aren’t out there looking for this kind of thing by any means. Unfortunately, people see things in different ways, and citizens complain about other citizens all the time, and they find and use these code violations.”
“This will be changed at the ordinance level,” Allen added. “We are starting the process of getting this to committee. We need to see that whoever takes my place continues to carry that ball.”
That’s right, Allen told us that something was being done to change the ordinance that restricts front yard objects within the setback allowance (near the sidewalk), such as Little Free Libraries, in Dallas, but that it could take weeks and months for any adjustment to become effective. This is the only Little Free Library anyone has ever complained about, Dallas’ Public Information Officer told us at the time.
So, is our current councilman “carrying the ball”? That remains to be seen. I have reached out to Adam McGough, District 10’s new council representative, to get his response. Of course, council is in session most of today, so I don’t expect to hear back from him immediately. I’ll go ahead and leave this here now, and I’ll update it after I talk to McGough.
Update Wednesday, noon: Holmes says he the city councilman just left her house. “Adam McGough just personally stopped by my home and talked with me for a while. He said he is working with some attorneys on some wording for the code to possibly include the Little Free Libraries. It is a work in progress and they are trying to hammer out some issues but he has pretty much promised me that we should not have to fear citation or demolition in a week.”
