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Update #62 September 27, 2021
Greetings Friends of the (still there) downtown library ~
Once again, in the years long narrative of proposed abandonment and demolition of our historical downtown library, we write to say we are still firmly committed to the renovation and renewal of the building that houses the library. Right where it has existed for 117 years.
After almost a year's silence from DBTL, this newsletter brings you the best way to provide an update on the current situation, five years after city tippy toes began the bait and switch march to build a new library under a parking garage, instead of creatively renovating and renewing the existing branch.
The City, of course, is on the same path on which it first touched its feet in the middle of 2016. The daily and monthly news stories continue to tell the tale.
Here then, we present Stephen Kessler's latest summary of where we find ourselves as of September 2021, for those of you who missed it. As usual, Kessler hit the ball over the goal post. Read on, for a good compilation of the situation. With thanks to Stephen!
__________________
Santa Cruz Sentinel
September 25, 2021
The library and the democratic process
By Stephen Kessler
As reported in the Sept.16 Sentinel, the City of Santa Cruz has signed a $2,289,550 contract with Jayson Architecture for design of the downtown library mixed-use project, formerly known (unofficially) as the Taj Garage for its combination of a five or six-story block-long parking structure with the flagship branch of our public library tucked into a corner on the ground floor. About four years ago, when this concept was just a gleam in the eye of then-City Manager Martín Bernal, then-City Councilwoman Cynthia Mathews, its most powerful political proponent (despite a real estate conflict of interest that disqualified her from voting for it on the Council), told me that the library had to be mixed with a garage because “we need the parking.”
The idea of moving the library, displacing the farmers market and cutting down the heritage trees on Lot 4 in order to construct such a monstrous building did not appeal to most of the community — communications with the Council ran heavily against it — so 50 units of “affordable housing” (meaning that much less parking) were blended into the mix in order to enhance its public appeal. In the latest iteration of the mixed-use project, parking is not even mentioned, and we’re told that not 50 but 107 units of “very-low-income” housing will be included. Why such housing must be combined with the library has not been explained. But the new mixed-use thing, with or without parking, could now be called the housing-project-library complex.
According to the city, the “pre-design, design and permitting” phase of the project should take “approximately 18-24 months,” with construction beginning sometime in 2023, to be completed by the end of 2024. This means that the referendum being organized by the grassroots groups Downtown Commons Advocates and the Campaign for Sustainable Transportation, if successful in collecting enough signatures, has time to be placed as a measure on the November 2022 ballot asking voters whether or not to save Lot 4 as a public plaza, construct affordable housing on other available sites and renovate the library where it stands, in Civic Center, across from City Hall. Conveniently, Jayson Architecture, at an earlier stage of planning and cost comparisons, has already sketched a design for such a renovation that could easily be the basis for saving the library in place and saving Lot 4 as open space.
The other good news is that despite the signing of the $2 million-plus contract, “The City will have the discretion to terminate the contract for any reason and the financial obligation to the Master Library Architect will be limited to services performed to the date of termination.” This means that if the voters next year reject the housing-project- library complex, the city can cut its losses despite already having wasted a ton of money.
In their Sentinel guest commentary of Aug. 11, Santa Cruz Mayor Donna Meyers and Councilwoman Martine Watkins made their case for a ballot measure to add a sales tax as a way to raise revenues for city services. “Our confidence in the democratic process underpins our vote to put a potential revenue measure before the voters,” they wrote. It would follow from this that the mayor’s and the Council’s confidence in the democratic process extends to such a controversial project as the garage-housing-library. So, the public may still have a chance to kill the illconceived mixed-use housinglibrary- garage, save the Lot 4 trees and farmers market space, renovate the library in place and build affordable housing elsewhere.
This drama will play out crucially over the next year, with pro-library-renovation and pro-mixed-use forces arguing their respective positions in the best democratic tradition while the people make up their minds about what kind of library, what kind of housing and what kind of parking they want, and where they want them.
The democratic process is in for a vigorous workout.
Stephen Kessler is a four-time recipient of the California Library Association’s PR Excellence Award for The Redwood Coast Review, which he edited from 1999 through 2014 for Coast Community Library in Point Arena.
Once again, in the years long narrative of proposed abandonment and demolition of our historical downtown library, we write to say we are still firmly committed to the renovation and renewal of the building that houses the library. Right where it has existed for 117 years.
After almost a year's silence from DBTL, this newsletter brings you the best way to provide an update on the current situation, five years after city tippy toes began the bait and switch march to build a new library under a parking garage, instead of creatively renovating and renewing the existing branch.
The City, of course, is on the same path on which it first touched its feet in the middle of 2016. The daily and monthly news stories continue to tell the tale.
Here then, we present Stephen Kessler's latest summary of where we find ourselves as of September 2021, for those of you who missed it. As usual, Kessler hit the ball over the goal post. Read on, for a good compilation of the situation. With thanks to Stephen!
__________________
Santa Cruz Sentinel
September 25, 2021
The library and the democratic process
By Stephen Kessler
As reported in the Sept.16 Sentinel, the City of Santa Cruz has signed a $2,289,550 contract with Jayson Architecture for design of the downtown library mixed-use project, formerly known (unofficially) as the Taj Garage for its combination of a five or six-story block-long parking structure with the flagship branch of our public library tucked into a corner on the ground floor. About four years ago, when this concept was just a gleam in the eye of then-City Manager Martín Bernal, then-City Councilwoman Cynthia Mathews, its most powerful political proponent (despite a real estate conflict of interest that disqualified her from voting for it on the Council), told me that the library had to be mixed with a garage because “we need the parking.”
The idea of moving the library, displacing the farmers market and cutting down the heritage trees on Lot 4 in order to construct such a monstrous building did not appeal to most of the community — communications with the Council ran heavily against it — so 50 units of “affordable housing” (meaning that much less parking) were blended into the mix in order to enhance its public appeal. In the latest iteration of the mixed-use project, parking is not even mentioned, and we’re told that not 50 but 107 units of “very-low-income” housing will be included. Why such housing must be combined with the library has not been explained. But the new mixed-use thing, with or without parking, could now be called the housing-project-library complex.
According to the city, the “pre-design, design and permitting” phase of the project should take “approximately 18-24 months,” with construction beginning sometime in 2023, to be completed by the end of 2024. This means that the referendum being organized by the grassroots groups Downtown Commons Advocates and the Campaign for Sustainable Transportation, if successful in collecting enough signatures, has time to be placed as a measure on the November 2022 ballot asking voters whether or not to save Lot 4 as a public plaza, construct affordable housing on other available sites and renovate the library where it stands, in Civic Center, across from City Hall. Conveniently, Jayson Architecture, at an earlier stage of planning and cost comparisons, has already sketched a design for such a renovation that could easily be the basis for saving the library in place and saving Lot 4 as open space.
The other good news is that despite the signing of the $2 million-plus contract, “The City will have the discretion to terminate the contract for any reason and the financial obligation to the Master Library Architect will be limited to services performed to the date of termination.” This means that if the voters next year reject the housing-project- library complex, the city can cut its losses despite already having wasted a ton of money.
In their Sentinel guest commentary of Aug. 11, Santa Cruz Mayor Donna Meyers and Councilwoman Martine Watkins made their case for a ballot measure to add a sales tax as a way to raise revenues for city services. “Our confidence in the democratic process underpins our vote to put a potential revenue measure before the voters,” they wrote. It would follow from this that the mayor’s and the Council’s confidence in the democratic process extends to such a controversial project as the garage-housing-library. So, the public may still have a chance to kill the illconceived mixed-use housinglibrary- garage, save the Lot 4 trees and farmers market space, renovate the library in place and build affordable housing elsewhere.
This drama will play out crucially over the next year, with pro-library-renovation and pro-mixed-use forces arguing their respective positions in the best democratic tradition while the people make up their minds about what kind of library, what kind of housing and what kind of parking they want, and where they want them.
The democratic process is in for a vigorous workout.
Stephen Kessler is a four-time recipient of the California Library Association’s PR Excellence Award for The Redwood Coast Review, which he edited from 1999 through 2014 for Coast Community Library in Point Arena.