A proposal to move the library to University Mall officially died Monday night. The Chapel Hill Town Council unanimously voted to move ahead with its $16 million expansion plan for the library at its current location in Pritchard Park in Estes Drive.

The town had been considering permanently moving the library in the Dillard's space in the mall. Mall owner Madison Marquette originally pitched the move as a cost-saver.

"It's my belief that we had this conversation with our eyes open; the only intent was having it reflect the best principles of open government," said Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt.

But the $1.5 million projected savings were not enough to make a permanent move worth it, said Town Manager Roger Stancil.

"We have not been able to agree on information that makes this change to the University Mall location an attractive offer based on your feedback," he said. "As the Mayor mentioned, we were working under the light of our commitment to transparency which means we put working documents out in a form we would otherwise not be satisfied with."

The town originally estimated that moving the library to the mall would save $4 million, but that number decreased after the cost of buying the space was included in the estimate, and the varying costs of design and construction was considered.

Last week, Jay Lask, managing director at Madison Marquette said in a letter to Stancil that because of the smaller savings, the move wasn't worth it.

"The results of our due diligence over the past several weeks provides good indication that the cost of relocating the library at University Mall will result in a construction costs savings of $1.5 million versus the $3 million to $4 million in savings as had originally been anticipated," he said. "Understandably, without there being significant cost savings, a change the direction of a project so close to ground breaking that has been in planning for so many years is hard to justify."

The library will still move to the mall temporarily as its current building is expanded. Stancil said town staff will prepare an updated timeline for the project. The expanded library will still open around fall of 2012, he said.