Honey, I Shrunk the Library!

We've been following the Old Town Newhall Library Project for a while now, since it's the first area of dowtown Newhall to be involved in the eminent domain process where the City of Santa Clarita will "acquire" buildings that are currently privately owned so they can be turned over to developers for new construction.

The original plan for the "library project" calls for a 65,000 square foot library, but leaves the door wide open for some commercial use as well.

In a recent update presented by Pat Aidem of the Daily News, the library needs for the Newhall area are only about 18,000 square feet to 24,000 square feet according to county library spokeswoman Pam Broussard. According to Chris Price, an assistant Santa Clarita City engineer overseeing Old Town Newhall Redevelopment, next year's draft budget includes $1 million to design a library as big as 24,000 square feet.

Wow! That's a lot of shrinkage! The library has been cut down from 65,000 square feet to a mere 24,000 square feet or less, leaving at least 63% of the proposed floor space open for commercial tenants. GASP! What a surprise! Seems our trusty Crystal Ball was working A-OK on this one after all.

According to the County, the library needs were determined by considering both Newhall and Stevenson Ranch area residents. It's hard to say whether Stevenson Ranch residents would use this library or the Valencia library instead, but the redevelopment planners clearly hope that the traffic generated for library use will also add to the shopper traffic for the Old Town Newhall Redevitalization area.

Per the Downtown Newhall Specific Plan, "the proposed building represents approximately 65,000 square feet of floor space which could be mostly library with some retail." So now our 65,000 square foot "public use" library project has turned into 24,000 square feet (or less) of public use, and at least 40,000 square feet of commercial development.

In all fairness, the Downtown Newhall Specific Plan does keep the door wide open for this reallocation, stating that "it is possible that this project could include other tenants (private or public) to help the financing of the project, if needed." However, since this is being sold to the public (and the current property owners) as a "public use project", and this library shrinking brings the actual library down to less than half of the total square footage of the project, it would seem that the "library project" is a commercial project in disguise after all. Quite a bonus to the developer, whoever that may be!

Now that the "library project" is in actuality going to be less than 40% library after all, can this still be considered to be a "public use" project when it comes to the upcoming eminent domain proceedings? It seems that with at least 63% of the space being devoted to commercial tenants, it would be considered to be a commercial building with a library attached.

The current Newhall library, which was renovated only six years ago, has only 4,842 square feet. The Newhall library was established in 1916 and was moved in 1957 to its current location at the corner of Walnut Street and 9th Street. At the time, the building was considered to be a "showpiece" for the County. Included at this library are 81,117 books; 5,404 audio recordings including audio books; 4,686 video recordings and DVDs; and 73 magazine and newspaper subscriptions. The library also has a local history collection and two public access Internet computers.