Stacks at the skatepark? City seeks input on library’s future
Hermosa Beach Library. Photo
The Hermosa Beach branch of the County of Los Angeles Public Library has stood at 550 Pier Avenue since 1962, making it the fourth-oldest of the system’s 85 locations. But when a renovation of Hermosa’s library makes it the newest one in the system, it won’t necessarily have the same address.
Next week, Hermosa will host a town hall meeting on its library. While recent meetings on the library have attempted to get a feel for what the community is seeking in terms of programming and features, Hermosa is now trying to get a handle on something more tangible: where should the library reside?
Hermosa’s library sits in the middle of other civic facilities, bounded by Pier and Valley Drive, including City Hall, the Hermosa Beach Police Department, and the former Hermosa Beach Fire Station, now occupied by the Los Angeles County Fire Department. All of them were built around the time of library, and all are now showing their age. (The fire station, which opened in the 1950s, closed last year; firefighters began operating out of trailers, and parking engines under large lean-tos.)
The possibility of savings and improved design from remodeling the library along with other civic facilities could prompt the city to hold off on major upgrades. But usage data and the changing needs of libraries in the 21st century — along with the fact that a new City Hall may be millions of dollars away and years in the future — may tilt toward a more prompt refresh for the city’s branch.
“It’s a huge opportunity for us, and also a need. I see it as being one of the first sig steps we’ll take in terms of an improvement [to our civic center],” said Mayor Jeff Duclos. “But whether it’s a new building, a new location … all of those things are yet to be determined.”
Next week’s workshop will examine three possible locations for a renovated library: the existing building; the east side of the Community Center, near Pacific Coast Highway; and the west side of the Community Center, where the Hermosa Skatepark currently sits. (The skatepark would be replaced if that location were chosen.)
The city began its consideration of the library by gathering data about existing usage, and determining what the community wants out of its library. While some residents have said that the current library is too small and lacks sufficient programming, it retains followers for reasons both sentimental and practical.
Resident Jim Pierce, who describes himself as a weekly library user, was heading into the library on Friday afternoon to pick up some books. Peirce mostly uses the library to get reading material, including, in the last few years, ebooks. He had been following the renovation discussion but wasn’t sure that a renovation large enough to require a new building was needed.
“It’s fine the way it is. I guess it depends on what you think a library should be,” Pierce said.
Linda Demmers, an independent library consultant who has assisted in dozens of county library renovations, said libraries are becoming more like community resources, rather than just places to store books. Hermosa, Demmers said in an interview last year, has one of the highest usage rates of any branch in the county relative to its size, but lacks many of the amenities that are increasingly standard in new branches,
Howard Seeb, president of the Friends of the Hermosa Beach Library, said his group has toured several area libraries and noticed that its lack of meeting rooms stood out. When the Manhattan Beach Library reopened in 2015, for example, it featured three small meeting rooms upstairs, as well as a large conference room downstairs that regularly hosts library events.
Adding these features would almost certainly require more square footage, possibly with a second story. A consultant presented designs representing various degrees of overhaul in a meeting last year, but some council members were uneasy about considering them without a better idea of how the library would fit into a broader overhaul of the civic center. A full-scale overhaul of City Hall and public safety buildings would cost millions of dollars and could force the city to go out for a bond to pay for it.
“The other part is the problem of going ahead without getting the rest of the city stuff involved: fire, police city hall. Without that guidance, we can make all the plans we want for the library,” but they won’t necessarily be enacted, Seeb said.
Yolanda De Ramus, the chief deputy director of the county library system, said in an email that there is no standard way of financing branch renovations. Manhattan’s branch was partially financed with a bond. In recent years, De Ramus said, funds have mostly come from contributions from the office of county supervisor for the district in which the library sits.
The Library town hall will take place Feb. 28 at 6 p.m. in City Council Chambers.