It’s a bad time to say so, but Cape Elizabeth needs a new library.

A Thomas Memorial Library Study Committee recently approved a consultant’s report that finds the library too small to be renovated and too tough to add onto in a cost-efficient way. The bottom line: Build a new one on the same site, incorporating historically significant parts of the old one.

The report, written by library consultants Himmel & Wilson and their architectural partners, Casaccio Architects, also outlines deficiencies of the current building, including a cramped entryway, lack of study and research space and lack of handicapped access.

Cape Elizabeth Town Manager Michael McGovern says that any decision or work on the report’s recommendations could be several years away.

“My concern is that this report is coming in at a time when the economy stinks,” McGovern said. “Everything needs to be evaluated in a competitive environment, assessing all the different needs and seeing what resources might be available.”

The Town Council will get its first look at the report by August or September, McGovern said. From there the council will either schedule a public hearing to discuss the report or vote to table discussion of the project, which McGovern said could run to $8 million.

The library was last renovated more than 20 years ago, in 1985. It consists of two 19th-century schoolhouses linked by an L-shaped main entrance. The original building, known as the Old Spurwink School, was built in 1849 and dedicated as the Thomas Memorial Library in 1919.

McGovern said some patrons say the building is running out of space, not because Cape’s population has increased significantly but because library science has changed drastically in the past 20 years.

For example, the demand for an audiovisual collection has increased, and computers with Internet access are in constant demand. Some collections have been downsized and others moved to inconvenient locations to make room.

In June 2008, the Town Council authorized using $75,000 from two private foundations to hire architects and consultants to work on the project.

The study committee asked the consultants to look at three options, according to Jay Scherma, director of Thomas Memorial:

• Renovate the current 13,000 square feet of building. The consultants decided that plan wouldn’t work because the library is 7,000 square feet too small to serve Cape residents’ needs, Scherma said.

• Build an addition. Consultants said that would involve moving parts of the existing structure, which wouldn’t be cost effective, Scherma said.

• Build a new library on the site while incorporating historical parts of the current building.

“Reluctantly, the study committee decided to approve the third scenario,” Scherma said. “Nothing’s likely to happen any time soon because it will have to go to the Town Council for approval.”

The Library Study Committee also recommends that the consultants complete a series of schematic drawings for the preferred conceptual plan, known as the clean-slate approach, which means removing all of the current structures and the construction of a new library.

McGovern said the Town Council has not seen the report or made any decisions whether or not to move forward with library work.

Councilors already are wrestling with several other large, costly projects, including a proposed pathway along Shore Road, and installation of a stoplight at the intersection of Route 77, Shore Road and Scott Dyer Road.

“There are several very large projects on the books right now in Cape,” said Town Councilor Sara Lennon. “Here are all these great projects, but which ones are we going to choose to work on?”

Both Lennon and McGovern said it is difficult to foresee approving any of the projects with a recent budget that is $500,000 less than last year. However, the town does have more time to investigate the potential projects.

“I think it’s beneficial that they are landing on our plates at the same time,” Lennon said. “Now we need to decide which ones we can postpone, which ones we can say no to and which ones we can begin work on.”