Library could be lure needed for Town Center
A key component of Yorba Linda’s soon-to-be redeveloped Town Center will be a new $29 million, 50,820-square-foot library--located near the library’s original 1913 home--that’s expected to bring more than 1,000 daily visitors into the heart of Old Town.
All of the myriad reports and studies focusing on the sleepy downtown area since the 1980s have cited the need for a popular business or public facility to serve as the lure to entice cash-spending customers to new shops and restaurants planned for the area.
The failed 2004-05 effort spearheaded by developer Michael Dieden and endorsed by a then-unanimous City Council envisioned a Whole Foods-type market anchoring a wide variety of businesses, boutiques and high-density residential development in Old Town.
But the Dieden partnership hadn’t yet started marketing the 31-acre area to specific businesses before petition drives derailed the project and led to an almost-complete council turnover in three municipal elections in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
And obviously, the current economy might make Old Town less attractive to the type of retailer that might draw larger crowds to compact downtown streets. Again, any specific marketing to brand-name businesses for Old Town locations has yet to begin in earnest.
Another Old Town option, a cultural arts center, also has been proposed, but, as impartial observers might agree, politics and a lack of identified financing hamper that plan. But an arts facility eventually could be situated on city land just east of the Community Center.
Financing for a new library will come from four sources: the library’s reserve accounts, selling the current property, a loan from the city general fund and excess bond proceeds, stated a report by Finance Director Dave Christian and Library Director Melinda Steep.
The library’s reserve funds, built up from savings from the library’s separate property tax and other revenue for the past several years, will hold about $12 million by the end of the 2012-13 fiscal year, including $5.8 million in a specific Library Capital Reserve Fund.
Sale of the current library property at 18181 Imperial Highway could net $3 million. A city-hired consultant reported in April that the library site might support 20,500 square-feet of retail and restaurant development with annual rents of $36 per square foot.
The $6 million loan from city reserves “would save the library the costs of issuing bonds as well as allowing the general fund to earn additional interest income over the life of the loan,” Christian and Steep noted.
A $4 million city loan to the library for a remodeling 20 years ago “has since been repaid in full,” the pair indicated. The interest rate would be between bond market requirements and that earned by the city’s investment portfolio.
Finally, $8 million will come from 2005 and 2011 Redevelopment Agency bond sales, with $20.3 million currently available for the Town Center project. Since a pedestrian bridge and parking structure were dropped, only $12 million is needed for infrastructure.
The estimated $29-31 million cost for a new library is “still very preliminary and once an architect is on board and can provide value engineering, these estimates may be reduced,” Christian and Steep noted.
While an exact location hasn’t been determined, the new library will be a stone’s throw from the room occupied on School Street in 1913 and a later location at Valencia Street and Lemon Drive in 1916.
All of the myriad reports and studies focusing on the sleepy downtown area since the 1980s have cited the need for a popular business or public facility to serve as the lure to entice cash-spending customers to new shops and restaurants planned for the area.
The failed 2004-05 effort spearheaded by developer Michael Dieden and endorsed by a then-unanimous City Council envisioned a Whole Foods-type market anchoring a wide variety of businesses, boutiques and high-density residential development in Old Town.
But the Dieden partnership hadn’t yet started marketing the 31-acre area to specific businesses before petition drives derailed the project and led to an almost-complete council turnover in three municipal elections in 2006, 2007 and 2008.
And obviously, the current economy might make Old Town less attractive to the type of retailer that might draw larger crowds to compact downtown streets. Again, any specific marketing to brand-name businesses for Old Town locations has yet to begin in earnest.
Another Old Town option, a cultural arts center, also has been proposed, but, as impartial observers might agree, politics and a lack of identified financing hamper that plan. But an arts facility eventually could be situated on city land just east of the Community Center.
Financing for a new library will come from four sources: the library’s reserve accounts, selling the current property, a loan from the city general fund and excess bond proceeds, stated a report by Finance Director Dave Christian and Library Director Melinda Steep.
The library’s reserve funds, built up from savings from the library’s separate property tax and other revenue for the past several years, will hold about $12 million by the end of the 2012-13 fiscal year, including $5.8 million in a specific Library Capital Reserve Fund.
Sale of the current library property at 18181 Imperial Highway could net $3 million. A city-hired consultant reported in April that the library site might support 20,500 square-feet of retail and restaurant development with annual rents of $36 per square foot.
The $6 million loan from city reserves “would save the library the costs of issuing bonds as well as allowing the general fund to earn additional interest income over the life of the loan,” Christian and Steep noted.
A $4 million city loan to the library for a remodeling 20 years ago “has since been repaid in full,” the pair indicated. The interest rate would be between bond market requirements and that earned by the city’s investment portfolio.
Finally, $8 million will come from 2005 and 2011 Redevelopment Agency bond sales, with $20.3 million currently available for the Town Center project. Since a pedestrian bridge and parking structure were dropped, only $12 million is needed for infrastructure.
The estimated $29-31 million cost for a new library is “still very preliminary and once an architect is on board and can provide value engineering, these estimates may be reduced,” Christian and Steep noted.
While an exact location hasn’t been determined, the new library will be a stone’s throw from the room occupied on School Street in 1913 and a later location at Valencia Street and Lemon Drive in 1916.
posted by Jim Drummond at 12:00 AM
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