Here we go again: Morgan Hill
– as it did a few years ago – must decide whether to build a
library at the current Civic Center site, or construct it in a more
retail-friendly location, this time downtown.
Here we go again: Morgan Hill – as it did a few years ago – must decide whether to build a library at the current Civic Center site, or construct it in a more retail-friendly location, this time downtown.
Clearly, for so many reasons, downtown is the right answer. As the expensive consultant the city hired when this issue first came up said, libraries belong in busy, retail-oriented, easy-to-get-to sites. Libraries benefit, because people who otherwise wouldn’t patronize them actually discover the benefits of the facilities. Nearby businesses benefit from the increased foot traffic a library brings (and the city gets more in tax revenue).
The current site, tucked away in a residential neighborhood, offers none of those benefits and advantages, but has a whole host of additional problems ranging from a difficult grade, existing buildings and fixtures and a high water table.
So, whether or not Rocke Garcia’s Sunsweet property at Third and Depot ends up being the site of Morgan Hill’s new library, one thing is clear: It is in the best interest of the majority of Morgan Hill residents to locate the library somewhere downtown.
The Sunsweet site has intriguing possibilities. It’s within easy and safe walking distance of all of downtown’s shops and restaurants, as well as the Community and Cultural Center and the Caltrain depot. After hours the empty library parking lot could be used by downtown visitors. It’s just as easy to access the site via public transportation as the Civic Center site.
Several letter-writers have brought up the safety issue of a downtown library, painting pictures of children running amok on the railroad tracks and sitting in the middle of Monterey Road. Downtown has bike shops, toy stores, music, dance and art lesson studios, book and ice cream stores, tae kwan do studios (right across from the tracks) and, once upon a time, even a movie theater – all drawing children of every age. No child has been mowed down by car or train – ever.
Traffic on the side streets is just as calm or more so as that on West Main and Peak avenues and Monterey Road traffic is controlled by stop lights. Parents do not fear to bring their children downtown to visit shops and studios; why should they fear to bring them downtown to a library?
The Sunweet Property offers another benefit: lower building costs. City Manager Ed Tewes ran the numbers and found the Garcia plan would cost the city several millions less to build than if it built the library itself at the Civic Center.
But we do have one major concern with Garcia’s proposal: He wants to lease the land under the library to the city for $75,000 per year for 25 years (a common enough cost and time in the library system), then sell the building – built with public money – to the city for $1. At the end of the lease period, the city will be able, if it wishes, to buy the land at its market rate, Garcia told the City Council.
We urge the city to take a close look at the fiscal side of Garcia’s plan and make sure it’s a smart move for taxpayers. And we urge Garcia to do the same, to remember that Morgan Hill taxpayers are his neighbors, and to see if he can find ways to make the numbers more palatable to a cash-strapped city.
In the meantime, we urge the city to look at other downtown sites in case the Sunsweet property deal doesn’t come to fruition. If we could wave a magic wand, we’d plunk the library and maybe even City Hall in the tired, worn shopping center at the southwest corner of Dunne and Monterey anchored by Albertson’s grocery. Multiple property owners make that unlikely, but why not keep working on it? Stranger things have happened.
But no matter where downtown the library is eventually built, we urge City Council endorse downtown as the right place for the new Morgan Hill Public Library.
