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Members of the Montgomery County Council searched for compromises Tuesday to appease both sides of a long and divisive debate over a proposed pedestrian bridge that would connect the Wayne Avenue Garage to a planned Silver Spring Library that would be located across the street from the garage.

The bridge would allow disabled people and the elderly to access the library without crossing Wayne at the intersection of Fenton Street. But to construct a bridge, the Silver Spring Urban Renewal Plan drafted in 1999 would have to be amended by the council. The plan prohibits a bridge over Wayne because it would take away pedestrian traffic that nearby businesses rely on.

If a bridge were not built, architects could consider an option that would expand the library from six stories to seven to accommodate street-level parking for the disabled, said David Dise, director of the county's Department of General Services. That plan would add $3.5 million to the project.

Councilwoman Valerie Ervin wondered if library planners could devise new options that would satisfy both sides.

"I'm always bothered by an either/or kind of a situation whereby if the council decides against the bridge, then the other option is to put parking at the library," said Ervin (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring at a County Council public hearing Tuesday in Rockville.

The council's Health and Human Services committee and Planning, Housing and Economic Development committee have scheduled a worksession for July 21 to discuss the project. The full council will likely vote July 28 on the project.

Darian Unger, chairman of the Silver Spring Citizens' Advisory Board, said if a pedestrian bridge were built, it would ignore the real problem downtown: the intersection at Wayne and Fenton, which some call unsafe.

"The county is saying, ‘The street is hard to cross right now so instead of fixing it we will build a bridge,'" Unger said.

"This is an area where we're trying to get a lot of street-level vitality. … Instead it has people going into canisters or a tube," he added, referring to the bridge.

Dise said the county recently added $300,000 to the project's budget for improvement to intersections at Wayne and Fenton and Fenton and Bonifant. Cindy Buddington, chairwoman of the county's Commission of People with Disabilities, said it's wrong to force disabled library patrons to brave the weather and traffic to visit a library. The library will contain a disability resource center.

Councilman Marc Elrich (D-At large) of Takoma Park said a bridge is unnecessary and disabled parking could be added to the library site. Councilwoman Nancy Floreen (D-At large) of Garrett Park, who had questioned the decision to put a library at Wayne and Fenton, was in favor of a bridge.

The bridge, which could cost as much as $750,000, is the last detail of the design for the library site at Wayne Avenue and Fenton Street. County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) and the HHS committee want a bridge, but county planners recommended against it. In May, the Montgomery County Planning Board split its vote, 2-2, on whether to amend the Urban Renewal Plan.

Nine community meetings were held last fall to determine the design for the site, which will place a six-story, 64,000-square-foot library, including a level of office space and an art center, along Wayne Avenue and Fenton Street. A 10-story, 146-unit apartment complex is planned on Bonifant Street.

Plans for the exterior of the library are also being designed. The final of four community meetings to determine the exterior design of the library building will be held 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. July 9 at the current Silver Spring Library at 8901 Colesville Road.