By Jim Hannah
Enquirer staff writer

INDEPENDENCE - The Kenton County Library Board announced Thursday it would build a $7 million branch in the small southern Kenton County community of Nicholson over the objections of the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission.

Wednesday night, the planning commission went against its own staff's recommendation by rejecting the Nicholson site in a 5-1 vote. The commission urged the library to look for another location.

The planning commission vote is only a recommendation, but the group is just the latest to voice objections to the library plan.

Attorney Eric Deters of Fort Mitchell, who wants the library built on land owned by his family, has already challenged the library in Kenton Circuit Court over its choice of a location.

Deters' land is at the Independence Town Center. The shopping strip has stores and restaurants and is close to a park, senior citizens center, three schools and the city government center.

The library voted in April to close a crowded branch at the Cherokee Shopping Center on Taylor Mill Road and build a new, larger branch in Nicholson.

The new site is on the north side of Walton Nicholson Road, between Madison Pike and Cadillac Drive in unincorporated Kenton County.

The planning commission staff had yet another idea. The staff's suggestion, which was rejected by the planning commission's governing board, suggested the library build in Nicholson but also keep open its Cherokee Shopping Center branch.

The staff's four-page report said that "by closing the existing branch location, the majority of current users, as well as future users based on new development in the area ... will be underserved."

Since 1996, the Independence branch has grown from serving 97,000 visitors to 170,233, a 75 percent increase.

The library defended its decision in a press release. It stated the Nicholson site was chosen after a 10-month search by a panel of what it described as "prestigious members," including a member of the planning commission and a professional planner employed by the commission.

Another independent group, the Kenton County Planning Commission, will now take up the issue. Its members will make their non-binding suggestion on where to place the library during a July 1 meeting.

E-mail jhannah@enquirer.com