By Jorge Casuso
May 5 – While City officials seem to be leaning toward placing a proposed library in Virginia Avenue Park, the Pico Improvement Organization is mounting a campaign this month to include it as part of a “Pico Communication Center” on the commercial strip.
Pico officials hope the three-to-four story “ground up, mixed use, state-of-the-art” facility
would enliven the main thoroughfare through Santa Monica’s poorest and most diverse neighborhood.
“Pico is ready to step up,” said Robert Kronovet, who chairs the PIO and who is leading the effort. “We what development.
“I am talking about a rebirth,” Kronovet said. “We want to improve our lives, and development is a key step for us. Our residents and merchants deserve the best.”
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| Rendering of proposed Pico Library (Courtesy of the Pico Improvement Organization) |
Kronovet -- who last November became the first candidate ever to win a Rent Control Board seat without the backing of Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights – has made the proposed facility his next big challenge.
He envisions the library as part of a center that would include a U.S. postal facility, family housing and retail outlets.
The ground floor would include the post office, an art gallery and retail space, while the library would take up most of the second floor, which also would house City and Federal government offices.
The top floors would be occupied by two and three-bedroom rental units that would help meet a pressing need for affordable family housing.
The proposal would fulfill a vision first expressed in the 1983 Pico Neighborhood Community Plan, which, according to City staff, “suggested combining existing private sector commercial activities with public uses to include a library and a post office.”
This month, the PIO is expected to approve the concept, which also will be presented to U.S. Congressman Henry Waxman’s office, since the PIO hopes the building would be named in his honor, Kronovet said.
While the PIO will use a power-point presentation that includes architectural renderings to counter the proposal to place the library at Virginia Avenue Park, the group likely will be fighting an uphill battle.
At the April 28 City Council meeting, 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, it would cost some $30 million, compared to the estimated $12.8 million it would cost to build it at the park.
The library site was given general support by 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.
Council members Kevin McKeown and Gleam Davis, however, worried that the library – which likely would go on the current site of the Sunday Farmers’ Market – would take up much needed park space.
They also agree with Kronovet that finding a location on the eastern end of Pico Boulevard would help invigorate the commercial strip, which is a hodge-podge of shops and fast food restaurants.
Pico residents have long advocated for their own library branch, even though the existing Fairview Branch Library at 2101 Ocean Park Boulevard, which opened in 1956, is less that a mile from the Pico Neighborhood.
