A
half-hour discussion of the long-proposed new library coming at the
end of a recent late-night City Council session resulted in a
unanimous vote for developing a plan to maximize “multi-uses” for
a new facility.
But
the council stopped short of making a final decision on the location
for a new building, leaving intact prior action labeling the
now-vacant 4.7-acre “strawberry field” on Lakeview Avenue a bit
north of the Stater Bros. shopping center as “the preferred site.”
Previously
eliminated as a library site were the open pad east of the Community
Center, the central portion of the proposed Town Center and the “tank
farm” in the Vista Del Verde area, east of Lakeview Elementary
School.
Various
renderings of a 45,000-square-foot, one-story facility have been
prepared, showing the building on different sections on the preferred
parcel, some with all surface parking and one with both surface and
subterranean parking.
One
drawing shows the library building close to Lakeview Avenue, with the
rear 1.25-acre portion left for other, unspecified development. The
land, purchased by the now-defunct Redevelopment Agency, is currently
city-owned and can only be used for “governmental purposes.”
Financing
a new facility, estimated in 2014 to cost $29 million, is a major
problem. The state-mandated 2012 dissolution of the Redevelopment
Agency eliminated a key resource by ruling out the use of
agency-issued bonds.
According
to the most recent city budget documents, prepared for the current
and next fiscal years, the library has a reserve fund balance of $7.9
million, but, “together with the operating fund, the library has
approximately $16 million in reserves set aside for a new facility.”
Library
operations are funded by a property tax stream separate from the
city, a remnant of the old Yorba Linda Library District that merged
with the city in 1985 after 71 years as an independent public agency
with its own taxing authority.
The
property tax income is expected to total nearly $4.6 million this
fiscal year and about $4.7 million the next fiscal year. An annual
$550,000 had been added to the reserve fund the past several years.
The
most recent expansion to 28,500 square feet costing $3.7 million was
completed in 1992. A previous expansion, costing $585,000, occurred
in 1971. The current site opened in 1960 at 6,000 square feet with
the proceeds of an $80,000 bond approved on a 280-39 vote.
The
library district's original five-member elected board of trustees
transitioned to a council- appointed commission when the city took
over operations, an action unanimously approved by both the last
elected library board and the then-sitting council members.
During
council discussion, Tom Lindsey suggested a two-story library and
cultural arts center for the site, Peggy Huang noted the library's
need for more space and Gene Hernandez said the library is a sign of
the quality of the community.