A petition to create a new library in the Hillside area went before Victoria City Council Thursday night.
The "Victoria Needs a Hillside Library" petition has over 1400 signatures, asking to the city to create a library that's easy for residents in the Hillside-Quadra neighbourhood to access.
Creator of the petition, Jenn Neilson, says her community doesn't have adequate access to a public library.
"If you looked at people living within two and a half kilometres approximately of each library, you can draw a little circle around each of the library locations that exist now, you'll see that there's a big gap. There's a gap around the Hillside-Quadra-Oaklands and part of North Park kind of area"
She says that's a need which has been identified by the Greater Victoria Public Library, with documents dating back nearly 30 years saying these neighbourhoods are under-served.
Neilson says the downtown library also needs work, but it's a much bigger project that will take much longer and cost a lot more money.
She adds that the downtown location might end up being moved, but even if they move it North, away from James Bay where the new library was just built, it still won't help the Hillside-Quadra community.
Neilson presented her petition to the City Council and she says it's looking like her plan will come to fruition.
"They've added a North End Library to their 2019-2022 Strategic Plan. Now that's still in the draft phase, so if you want to comment on it and say that you do want a library and you like that they put that in there, you can look on the city's website. There's a survey, I think, open for the next little while."
She knows a lot of work still needs to be done, but is hopeful that a new library will be established in her community in the coming years.