Responding to a vocal public, three City Council members changed
their minds Wednesday night and voted to build a new library at the
current Civic Center. After urging a wider review of future plans
for the city-owned block and possibly finding a better location,
two remaining council members joined them, making the vote a
unanimous 5-0.
Responding to a vocal public, three City Council members changed their minds Wednesday night and voted to build a new library at the current Civic Center. After urging a wider review of future plans for the city-owned block and possibly finding a better location, two remaining council members joined them, making the vote a unanimous 5-0.
A united council also approved raising developer fees to $750 for each new single family home (from $228 today) and $614 for each multiple-family unit. The move would increase capital income from $60,000 to $180,000 annually.
The biggest surprise came from Councilman Steve Tate and Mayor Dennis Kennedy who voted for the neighborhood site. Both men worked on the subcommittee report that recommended a downtown location because it would benefit, the report said, more of the town’s taxpaying citizens and attract more library users because of higher visibility downtown.
A 28,000 square-foot Civic Center library is currently slated to cost $14.3 million.
Kennedy and Tate clearly said on June 23 that they preferred the downtown site over the Civic Center site.
“I didn’t change sides,” Tate said Wednesday. “I’ll always be on the side of Morgan Hill.”
He said he still understands the benefit a downtown library would be to the town and to the library.
“It would increase the heart and soul of the community,” Tate said. “I would still prefer downtown but I can’t keep supporting it in the face of the huge groundswell.”
After the June 23 public hearing, where the vote was delayed because of the absence of vacationing Councilman Greg Sellers, several citizens including Marie Lamb, Andrew Poth, Marby Lee, Nancie Barker and Fred Amaroso banded together to collect more than 1,000 signatures and organize a deluge of calls and e-mails to council members demanding that they choose the Civic Center site.
Council said they saw the handwriting on the wall and realized that even part of 1,000 signatures was a significant showing from the more than 40,000 residents in the library service area.
Tate said he worried about the reaction of the Civic Center proponents, far more vocal than the downtown fans who tended to speak at a lower level.
“There was an almost fearful amount of acrimony and rancor that got into this,” Tate said. “This has polarized to point where it almost scares me.”
He, and several other council members mentioned receiving letters containing language edging close to threats from the public backing the Civic Center site. Besides the normal threat of recall and taking ones vote elsewhere in November, council members reported bits of unpleasant name-calling.
Sellers is challenging Kennedy for the mayor’s position; Councilman Larry Carr will run for a second term though Councilwoman Hedy Chang has not announced her intentions about seeking a third term.
Downtown Association President Lesley Miles explained to the council that, while some merchants spoke out in favor of the Third Street site, the DTA and most other merchants actually only encouraged following the city’s new Downtown Plan, which calls for mixed use.
Marguerite Sinnett urged council to listen to the public.
“Listen to your constituents, it’s your duty,” Sinnett said. “You represent all of us, not just the merchants or those looking for a handsome land deal.”
Bob Martin, who serves on the Chamber’s Economic Development Committee questioned the allegations that to place the library downtown would be to ignore all the citizens.
“The Downtown Association, the Chamber of Commerce and EDC – each of those bodies represents thousands of tax-paying citizens,” Martin said.
At least one-third of a city-sponsored survey of sites chose the downtown site.
“That’s an impressive number of people willing to consider change,” said Tate.
Chang said she favored the Civic Center because it could be built faster, though she realized the city would lose something from the choice.
“The downtown is good for economic development purposes,” Chang said.
A downtown library was expected to help draw people to area businesses and the community center. Downtown businesses were expected, in turn, to draw more people to the library. Council has always stressed that money spent at Morgan Hill stores adds sales taxes to the general fund which pays for all police and fire protection and recreation services.
Chang apologized to developer Rocke Garcia who owns a lot on East Third Street that was under consideration for the library; she said she had told him she would back the downtown site.
“We should reimburse Mr. Garcia for the $40,000 he spent (developing the site plan),” Chang said.
Several speakers claimed Garcia was offering the land to make money and would charge millions for the land at the end of a 20-year building and land lease, an arrangement that was not on the table Wednesday night. He said he offered the deal to help the city out when it needed a new library but did not have enough funds to pay for it.
“I understand the council’s dilemma,” Garcia said. “As a citizen I hope you can listen to all citizens but we stand ready to do what you would like us to do.”
Kennedy said he thought it important that the people have a say in the decision and had wanted the site selection to be put on the November ballot, a move that would have cost the city $14,000. He listed some positive points about a downtown site.
“A downtown library would have good synergy with the new courthouse, with transit, business,” Kennedy said. “It would have good pedestrian access and access by car. It would be something that benefited the entire community.”
But he said it was disappointing to see that the choice issue was dividing the community, so he too gave in and went with Tate.
“Either one would be outstanding,” Kennedy said.
He said council could talk about the disposition of the Civic Center and the future of City Hall after the library decision was made.
Because Sellers found so much misinformation in messages from the public over the site choice, he apologized for not explaining the situation better.
“If we make the right decision in the wrong way we will get divisiveness and the community won’t understand,” Sellers said.
He strongly urged his colleagues to take a step back and decide what they wanted to do with the entire Civic Center site, which is in prime residential area and could be sold for housing or turned into a park. Sellers and several other council members have toyed with the idea of eventually moving City Hall – and possibly the library too – to a more accessible location.
Building the library on DeWitt Avenue, a block away from Peak Avenue would not only quell that joint effort but move the library one more block away from Monterey Road where prevailing opinion among library experts and nationwide city planners say it would work best. Sellers was overruled.
Many of the evening’s speakers mentioned the site’s beauty – at the foot of El Toro Mountain, its already a park-like setting – along with its proximity to two schools, one Catholic and one public, plus certain room to expand and a feeling of greater safety.
Sellers and Carr both acknowledged the beauty but worried that the Alkire and DeWitt avenue residents would find their quiet streets crawling with new traffic – a new library traditionally brings in two to three times the traffic from opening day – plus increased traffic from the many Public Works employees who will move with their vehicles up from Edes Court into the old library building.
“The library is going to be there a very long time,” Sellers said.
He suggested, and council agreed, to reserve for downtown improvements the $3 million taken from downtown redevelopment funds and added to the library fund.
Carr said he has always supported putting the library on the Britton Middle School campus. But when discussions with the school district – which has been overwhelmed with other details – fell through earlier in the year, the plan was abandoned. He, too, wanted to consider the big picture.
“We must think about this entire site before we invest $14 million and we haven’t had that dialogue,” Carr said. “Is this the 50-year horizon for City Hall?”
Library Commissioner Chuck Dillmann, speaking as a private citizen, backed up Carr and Sellers on the need to take a breath and wait.
“The delay should be made with overall civic needs in mind,” Dillmann said. “More time is needed to make an informed decision.”
He worried that, at 28,000 square-feet, the proposed library is already too small; failure to land a state bond grant caused the reduction in building size. A 28,000 square-feet building is all the city can afford.
“40,000 square-feet is consistent with (the city’s expected growth),” Dillmann said.
Library Commissioner Charles Cameron was clear about what he wanted on Third Street instead of a library.
“The downtown site is better for Trader Joe’s,” Cameron said, calling attention to the number one store on many residents’ wish list.
Carr, Tate and Library Commission chair Jeanne Gregg mentioned the failure of Measure B, a small parcel tax extension that covers 20 percent of the library’s operating costs. Voters were promised another chance to pass it, possibly in June 2005; a new library that was only open a few hours would hardly be worth the effort.
Ed Nauss, who sent a check for $35 to the library after Measure B failed to pass, was for the neighborhood location.
“A downtown location would cripple the library,” Nauss said.
Civic Center fan Lamb said Thursday that the group would continue to work for the library.
“We want to make it an award-winning library,” Lamb said.
Carol Holzgrafe covers City Hall for The Times. She can be reached by e-mail at ch********@*************es.com or phoning (408) 779-4106 Ext. 201.
