Reddit mentions of The Makerspace Workbench: Tools, Technologies, and Techniques for Making

This book could be an invaluable resource. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1449355676

For the one I ran at my university we had those plastic 4-tiered shelves you find at Lowes for garages and it was a free for all on recycled electronics. Purchased components went into well organized bins that I was always sorting.

Off the top of my head:

• Expect the process to take months.
  
• Look up nearby spaces on the hackerspaces.org global list; reach out to them for advice as they'll have local knowledge and will get emails/inquiries from people looking for nearby spaces . Visit if you can and get to know them if possible. Ask for spare bits to get you going.
  
• Add your potential space to the global list on that site. Set up a "planning" mailing list and a site to hold basic information - don't build a full site yet, just a page you can send people to.
  
• Talk to everybody about it. Get it down to a 2 minute "elevator pitch". Be prepared to hear that it won't work and why. Address the why and learn from it. Look for the people that get excited and get them involved in the conversation. Find out what people in your local area want. Electronics? CNC? 3d Printers? Laser cutting? What about a club vs a for-profit model? Welding classes? Textiles and soft circuits? DIY Biotech?
  
• Read. Read more. I recommend these books because we've used them for our space. It's worth having a paper copy with your name @ number in it to loan out to people.
  
• Network - beyond talking to anybody who will listen, specifically look for connections to high schools, home school groups (assuming you want a space with kids, in both cases), university programs, trade school programs, and manufacturing businesses in your area. Look for connections who can help with tools, supplies, and expertise.