By Jorge Casuso
April 29 – While several City Council members on Tuesday expressed strong support for locating a new library at a Pico neighborhood park, others worried it would eat into much-needed open space.
The debate over where to build the new Pico branch library is still brewing after the council directed staff to continue exploring the two options – placing it at Virginia Avenue Park or finding an available piece of land along Pico Boulevard.
The most vocal supporters of the park site were Mayor Ken Genser and Council member Richard Bloom, who made a new library for the Pico neighborhood part of their campaign platforms in the November race for four open council seats.
“I strongly believe the placement of a library on the site (of Virginia Avenue Park) only enhances the services,” Bloom said.
The library will become “part of the fabric and dynamic” of the existing park and “fit quite well with the pieces there now,” he said.
Genser said he was persuaded to seriously look at the park site after speaking to a community resident who argued that placing the library there would draw those least likely to seek its services.
“It will increase the likelihood that young people who may not go to it as a primary destination may encounter it,” Genser said. “That argument is compelling to me.”
But other council members said the City shouldn’t be so hasty in deciding to place the library in the park.
“A park is a park,” said Council member Kevin McKeown, “and it’s easy to say, ‘Let’s start building,” and there’s no park anymore.
“I would have to be convinced that there are no off-site locations available,” he said. “I guess staff has set its heart on putting this in the park instead of on Pico Boulevard.”
Newly appointed Council member Gleam Davis agreed the City should continue to explore options.
“The idea of sacrificing any open space I have a reaction against, but I’ll try and keep an open mind,” Davis said. “My first preference is to build something along Pico. It might activate Pico.”
The debate came after City staff made a presentation that focused primarily on the different ways a library could be accommodated within the park, which opened at the intersection of Pico and Cloverfield boulevards four years ago.
They noted that while locating the library on Pico would help revitalize the commercial strip that serves the City’s poorest and most ethnically diverse neighborhood, it would cost some $30 million, compared to the estimated $12.8 million it would cost to build it at the park.
If a proposed 7,000 to 7,500 square foot facility with between 25 and 30 parking spaces is built at Virginia Avenue Park, it would likely go on the current site of the Sunday Farmers’ Market, staff said.
Both Genser and Bloom said the proposed library should be visible from the street. Genser also encouraged staff to look at ways to minimize the impact of parking on open space, including exploring building a garage underground.
While the existing Fairview Branch Library at 2101 Ocean Park Boulevard, which opened in 1956, is less that a mile from the Pico Neighborhood, residents of the area have long advocated for their own branch.
The need for a branch library in the Pico Neighborhood first came up in the 1983 Pico Neighborhood Community Plan, “which suggested combining existing private sector commercial activities with public uses to include a library and a post office,” staff said.
The annual operating cost of a new library would be about $870,000, staff said.
