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Capitola Library Likely to Remain on Wharf Road
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Capitola Library Likely to Remain on Wharf Road
By Linda Fridy
A citizen's ad hoc committee, the library director and residents in attendance Nov. 4 agreed that the best place for Capitola's expanded library branch is where the current temporary one sits: on Wharf Road across from what has become known as the Rispin ruins. However, any action on the matter was delayed by a split council.
Two of the four city council members in attendance were ready to ask staff to begin discussions on that spot or across the street on the Rispin site. Sam Storey and Ron Graves supported further investigation of both sides of the street, advocating for a combined project that would build a library and finally address the blight of the former mansion site.
Kirby Nicol said he wanted to wait to see if money could be obtained from the county redevelopment agency to help build a branch that statistics show serves a larger percentage of unincorporated county residents than Capitola citizens.
Check-out figures show that 28 percent of those borrowing items from the Capitola branch live in the city. An equal number come from Soquel, with the rest living in other parts of the county. Similarly, city residents are nearly half as likely to use other branches in addition to Capitola's.
Graves, Library Director Teresa Landers and City Manager Richard Hill all noted that the county cannot pay for a project outside its development area.
The city faces the same challenge, which is one of the reasons the Wharf Road locations are favored. On Wharf Road, the city can spend redevelopment funds.
Both sites — the former Rispin Mansion and the current library — have access to the redevelopment money that is being set aside for a new library and the money freed up by the recent demise of the hotel project planned at the city-owned Rispin property.
Nicol also expressed concern about choosing a site without a clear vision of what the branch would look like.
"I don't know where I want to build this thing until I know what I want to build," he said.
The 10-branch library system is currently undergoing such a study to define future priorities.
Mayor Bob Begun asked for the council to wait until the fifth member, Dennis Norton, was available to cast his vote. With a two-two split, the issue was held over until the Nov. 12 meeting.
Contractual Obligations
The push to build a new, permanent library branch comes from a contract Capitola signed with the county in 2004. In exchange for including the Rispin site in its redevelopment area, the city promised to build a 7,000-square-foot branch.
It began setting aside redevelopment tax income and must begin construction by 2018 or turn the money, $2.6 million, over to the county.
In exchange, the county promised to provide staff and services comparable to the Aptos branch.
That element was news to the new library director, and underscored the complicated nature of the library system. The county does not run the system; rather, it has a joint powers authority made up of representatives from the county and each city except Watsonville.
The finances of the system are overseen by the city of Santa Cruz, which on Nov. 2 announced that it decided not to apply a 2 percent surcharge to cash flow loans to the libraries.
Capitola city council members asked that discussions take place with the county to assure that the library system could afford the county's contractual commitment should the city build a new branch.
"If it's meant to be comparable to Aptos, there should be a mechanism to see there is funding to achieve that," said Councilman Storey, who also sits on the library board.
Hotel Project Gets Another 'No'
Capitola confirmed the availability of the Rispin site Oct. 30.
Hotel developers Barry Swenson and Ron Beardslee asked the council for another year to get funding for a small hotel on the Rispin site.
In closed session, the council instructed Rich Hill to decline the offer.
The city's redevelopment agency had previously determined that its agreement with Barry Swenson Builder and Ron Beardslee was automatically terminated when the developers did not begin work on the project by the Sept. 29 deadline and sent a letter to that effect Oct. 9.
Still, Swenson Vice President Jesse Nickell tried to buy more time to put together financing by attempting to once again invoke force majeure, claiming that economic forces beyond the firm's control impacted its ability to begin on time.
Nickell first used the "act of God" argument after a late May fire delayed the project start. The city council, acting as the redevelopment agency's directors, set the September deadline in a compromise.
Bank of the West declined to loan money for the project, estimated to cost between $14 million and $15 million for a 25-room hotel in what is now little more than a burnt-out shell. The city owns the six-acre parcel and had planned to put as much as $4.5 million into the project.
Library advocates are now eyeing at least a portion of that funding as well as the land.
Nickell asked for a year's extension to Sept. 29, 2010.
The city said no after a special closed session Oct. 30. The city maintained its position that the agreement has already been terminated and refused to reinstate it, according to a letter issued Nov. 2.
Evaluating Possible Sites
The Nov. 4 public hearing began with an overview by former mayor Mike Termini of eight months of site identification work by the ad hoc citizens' committee. Expecting that the city would not have enough money to buy land and build a new branch, it focused on existing buildings or city-owned land to contain costs.
The search narrowed down to a handful of potential sites. Two on Jade Street, an existing office building for sale and the community center at the park, are considered too close to the Live Oak branch to be optimal and fall outside the redevelopment project area, making financing more difficult.
A long-term lease at the Bay Avenue Nob Hill center is better located in relation to other branches, but also falls outside the RDA project area and is not city owned.
The six-acre creekside Rispin site, while recently made available, could face the same legal opposition by environmentalists for library development that tied up hotel plans in court over the last decade. However, no discussions have occurred to date.
Speakers had other concerns about the Rispin side of Wharf Road.
Library Director Landers noted that unless the Rispin site could accommodate the required 37 parking spaces on that side of the street, it would might pose difficulties for some families.
"You don't want to cross Wharf Road with a stroller and a child in the other hand," she said.
Resident Ron Skelton also preferred the current location.
"By far the best side is the existing site," he said, adding, "Please, please don't put a building in the [Rispin] garden."
The current site also received the most support from community members who attended the library system's Oct. 13 town hall meeting in Capitola.
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