Hello again to Courier readers!
Many of you have stood up repeatedly to convince our political leaders that parking for the College-Rolando Library is important, and that the loss of parking will result in a non-functional library.
For four long years our interests have been ignored. It’s time to tell the mayor how upset we are.
What are we facing today on the lot next door to our library? A very dense development identified as a hotel/apartment with 126 hotel rooms and 50 some apartments. This building of five stories has 525 bedrooms, with many four-bedroom units. Its plans have been approved ministerially by the Development Services Department, without Planning Commission review, community input, or Council action.
And what about parking (pictured above)?
The building completely covers its 1.8 acre lot with the exception of the existing driveway built by the city for the library and 25 parking spaces. The city assures us that these spaces will be available for library use, but as the ONLY surface parking on site, with no street parking, they will in no way be surplus to project needs. Library patrons will be out of luck! Our library will be non-functional. The city’s head remains in the sand.
The city has a long string of stories to explain why this is OK. “The owner had the right to build this project.” “It did not require a Planning Commission vote, or any Council review”. “There was no required environmental review of this project.” “The city has the ability to ignore a zoning restriction on a property that prohibits residential development (zoning designations no longer matter).”
What do these stories tell us? Only developer voices count. We don’t count.
The city wants more housing units, and it will line developers’ pockets handsomely to get it. What gets destroyed in this process doesn’t matter. Without parking, the library will no longer be a functional resource for the community.
Let’s just look at the real estate decisions.
We’ve heard a lot about Ash Street. Sadly, we can offer 6650 Montezuma Rd. as another example. One dumb decision has led to another. In 2005 the city built a significant part of this library on land it did not own, and then ignored its first right of purchase when, in 2016, the land came up for sale at $2.3M. The city-built library access and parking subsequently fell into private hands. Library access remained blocked for a whole year. The owner chained the driveway because he could, not because he had a conflicting use. He clearly felt little concern over losing city-favor.
Finally, at the community’s urging, in the process of granting the owner a zone upgrade, the city secured some protection for the library access and parking it had constructed.
Then in 2022, it ripped those protections to shreds when it accepted this project as a “by right” construction, even though that violated our hard-won zoning protections. Now in 2024, the city bureaucracy has approved the project, and the owner’s land value has skyrocketed. $8M, $10M, $12M?
What’s the value of our hamstrung library? It’s worthless to our communities. There is no Plan B to replace what has been lost.
What would it cost to build a new library for us? Upwards of $45M. Consider that the city’s list of needed new libraries is shamefully long, with few funding sources available. It will be lifetimes until our number comes up for a new library. Meanwhile, every year, the funds required to operate this library, given the severely damaged opportunities for community use, will be wasted. Inexplicably , every year, the city will pay the owner upwards of $12,000 for parking access that doesn’t exist. A disgraceful situation.
How do we know our library will become nonfunctional? In 2017, the entry driveway and parking was blocked for one whole year. Our community room stood un-used. ¿Por qué? “No parking” destroys attendance at events. Kids coming to homework help sessions and other children’s programming fell off by ½ or more.
Similarly, adults stopped coming for services and programming. Book circulation dropped by 1/2. Inaccessibility produced a library that was fatally compromised. The remaining 28 parking spots at the back of the library were insufficient. Now, they, too, will be overcome by spillover-use from the parking-starved adjacent building.
Sadly, the city’s project approval has placed us another step closer to this grim future. The decision to approve this project is so egregious that it requires a review by the mayor to correct its course.
A refusal to do so tells us several things: Older communities don’t matter. Wise real estate decisions are not within city reach. Calls for equity are but hollow words. “More housing” at any cost is what we can expect.
This is not the city we want.
We urge you, once again, to email Mayor Todd Gloria and Council President/ D9 Councilmember, Sean Elo Rivera. Express your frustration. Call on them to stand up for us. [email protected] y [email protected].
For more information, here’s a link to a recent Union-Tribune commentary piece. UT Commentary Aug-14-2024.docx If you are not on our supporter email list, ask to join with an email to [email protected] and we will keep you informed about future actions.
Editor’s note: This piece was written by Jan Hintzman, a long-time activist living in Rolando and president of the Friends of the College-Rolando Library.
