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Capitola Library Will Stay in Its Current Neighborhood
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Driving Impaired: The Costs & Consequences
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Capitola Library Will Stay in Its Current Neighborhood
By Linda Fridy
Capitola's city councilmen voted four-to-one Nov. 12 to look at both the Rispin mansion property on Soquel Creek and the current Wharf Road library site across the street to build a larger, permanent branch.
After a one-week delay that allowed Councilmember Dennis Norton to join the discussion, most members chose to have staff look at options on both sides of the street. Mayor Bob Begun cast the sole dissenting vote because he favors the existing site.
He said in an interview after the meeting that the current location is the best choice, citing concerns about parking and the need to cross Wharf Road to access a library on the Rispin property.
City staff is overworked dealing with the effects of budget cuts, he added, and looking at both sites creates unnecessary work.
The rest of the council would like to move forward with addressing the future of the Rispin site and voted to have it included in staff review.
"My intent was to open up discussion and have staff look at possible designs and feasibility," said Vice Mayor Sam Storey.
While he expects that staff will support the current library site for a permanent branch, Storey envisions a joint project, developing the library in tandem with a use such as a community meeting room.
He said it is high time for the city to move ahead with something on the Rispin property. It has sat vacant for decades while the city considered options, most recently a boutique hotel private-public partnership.
"It's been tied up too long and unavailable to the public," Storey said.
At the Nov. 4 special meeting on the library location, Library Director Teresa Landers said that she would like to see meeting space in all branches, but 7,000 square feet is smaller compared to other branches being planned. A nearby meeting room would open up more space for other library uses.
The approved motion also included approaching the owner of a lot to the north of the current library property to explore options of expanding that site.
Talking to the County
The library discussion is driven by an agreement between Capitola and the county.
The city in 2004 agreed to set aside redevelopment money to build a 7,000-square-foot branch by 2018. It will have accumulated $2.6 million at that time.
In exchange, the county promised to staff the new building at the same level as the Aptos Library. Although both branches experienced severe reductions in hours to cope with a budget deficit and a leadership in transition, Capitola currently has less time and staff than Aptos. Aptos is open five days a week and 32 hours compared to Capitola's three days and 20 hours.
However, the county does not run the library system, which operates under a joint powers authority. That is why the council also directed staff to begin talks with the county to see if and how it can live up to its end of the agreement, Storey noted.
Capitola will lease the building to the library system for $1 a year under the agreement. The system has responsibility for staffing, materials and maintenance.
The Wharf Road locations fall within the city's redevelopment project area. Other locations outside those boundaries present problems for the city to access the redevelopment money being set aside for the new branch.
In addition, the demise of the hotel project involving the Rispin property frees up additional funding, which library advocates have eyed to supplement what many see as an inadequate amount to build a new branch.
Capitola's Community Development Director Jamie Goldstein said council and staff's intent is to "come up with the best plan and do it in a public manner." He expects staff will come back to the council to authorize a request for proposals for the project, and that the ad hoc community group that helped with the site search may be formalized to help in selecting a design firm.
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