The Lawrence-Douglas County Planning Commission included a “satellite” library in a new five-year capital improvements plan approved Wednesday.

But approval didn’t come without discussion about protecting the city’s core from outlying areas.

The plan  a kind of “wish list” of possible city building projects  included more than 150 proposals. The library was perhaps the most contentious item on the list.

Commissioners opposed to the satellite plan said they don’t want anything to detract from Lawrence’s downtown, where the public library’s only branch is located at 707 Vt.

“I don’t want to move government facilities away from the cultural center of town,” Commissioner Myles Schachter said.

Library officials have long proposed creating a satellite, perhaps in west Lawrence or on South Iowa Street, to make books and other items in the collection more accessible to outlying areas of town.

Library director Bruce Flanders did not attend Wednesday’s meeting but told the Journal-World that creating the satellite would follow the example of other growing communities.

“You see in many other communities a main library downtown and branch libraries throughout the community,” Flanders said.

And he said a satellite would have roughly 12,000 items in its collection, compared to more than 250,000 items downtown. It would cost about $650,000 to start, probably in the storefront of a building shared with other businesses.

“It’s really nothing more than an outlet,” Flanders said of a satellite branch. “The library has an incredible commitment to downtown, and we would always retain that as our main location.”

On the planning commission, however, opposition to a branch library made unusual bedfellows. Schachter and Chairman Ron Durflinger  rarely allies on key commission votes  were among the chief opponents.

“I’m a big user of the library, and I live very far from the library,” Schachter said. “It does bring me downtown.”

“I’d rather have one excellent facility than two mediocre facilities,” Durflinger said.

They were opposed by commissioners Sue Pine and Jane Bateman.

“It is a branch,” Bateman said. “It is not a new library. This is not precluding coming downtown.”

The debate came down to dueling visions of Horizon 2020, the city-county long-range planning guide. It calls for city government facilities to be centrally located downtown  but it also envisions satellite libraries popping up as the city grows.

Even opponents of a satellite conceded the latter provision was important. The commission voted to approve the plan, 9-1, with only Schachter opposing.

The plan now goes to the Lawrence City Commission for final approval.