"We would be starting all over again," Blueskin Bay Library Redevelopment Trust chairman Stuart Strachan said yesterday.
Mr Strachan hoped the proposal to delay the project could be reversed, considering the work that had been done.
The Dunedin City Council's pre-draft annual plan budget shows $745,000 listed for the library's construction had been moved from the 2012-13 year to the 2015-16 year.
That money is the council's share of funding for the library.
After some controversy about the demolition of the former library building, fundraising began last year to raise more than $300,000, a figure that was the community's share of the project.
In December, that fundraising was announced as almost complete, following news of a $200,000 lottery grant.
Mr Strachan said then final costings were required, but he believed the trust needed about another $40,000, and construction was expected to begin this year.
Yesterday, he said the fundraising had been 90% completed, though the final situation would not be known until tenders were completed.
But the possibility of losing all the funding gained "certainly would be a high risk" if the project was deferred.
Trusts that provided funding were not so generous as to wait for that period of time, he said.
"We thought this might happen," Mr Strachan said.
Despite that, the proposal to defer the project was just a proposal, and he hoped because of the fundraising work, and because of the strong merits of the project, councillors would decide to continue with it.
"It's a project that would have the least impact on rates."
