Golden Hall Razing Backed for Library : But Budget Woes, Opposition Cloud Plan by Council for High-Rise on Concourse

The San Diego City Council on Monday approved plans to tear down the Golden Hall convention center, which has become a civic white elephant of sorts, and replace it with a new high-rise central library on the San Diego Community Concourse downtown.

But the council’s 7-1 vote in favor of the Golden Hall site for the library was clouded with enough questions and caveats Monday that it is still conceivable the facility could be built somewhere else.

The most compelling question facing council members is how they expect to pay for the proposed seven-story library--what city leaders hope will be part of downtown’s cradle for culture--with a city construction budget that is expected to be $789 million in the red within the next 20 years. The library will have 55,000-square-feet of ground-floor space and is estimated to cost between $40 million and $54 million.

“It breaks the ice, gets us moving to answer the questions,” Mayor Roger Hedgecock said of the vote. “It’s easy to stand up and say ‘No, no, no.’ But it is time to get moving for a central library for this city.

“This is not the last step, this is but the first step in a journey . . . that may not end up (with a library) on the concourse,” Hedgecock said.

The council’s vote on where to put the library came after months of debate narrowed the choices to five sites. Besides Golden Hall, other proposals called for expanding the current downtown library at 820 E Street, as well as putting new buildings near City College and two other downtown sites.

The Centre City Development Corporation and city staff members, however, recommended the Golden Hall location because of its proximity to public transportation, parking and land that lends “dignity to the library function.”

On Monday, several individuals and groups opposed that recommendation and urged the City Council to at least table the matter. William E. Nelson, president of the San Diego Opera Association, asked for further study of the site because his group is worried a new library there may affect use of the nearby Civic Theater for arts groups.

San Diegans Inc., the powerful downtown group representing inner-city businessmen and property owners, said in a letter distributed to council members that destroying Golden Hall would be “short-sighted” because the anticipated construction of several hotels near City Hall would create a demand for small-scale gatherings, for which the larger convention center planned for the bayfront area would be unsuitable.

And while they acknowledged that the current central library is woefully inadequate, members of the city library commission said building a bigger facility downtown may not be the right decision. Statistics show that the number of books and magazines checked out of the downtown branch has dropped--from 741,901 in the fiscal year ending in 1983 to 617,048 in the fiscal year ending in 1985.

“Very simply, the public will not endure downtown traffic, costly parking and the street people who inhabit the library in order to use the facility,” said Robert Magness, a library commissioner. “Instead, they go to their nearest branch.”

Further objections to the Golden Hall site were added by Councilman Bill Cleator, the lone vote against the proposed concourse location. Cleator said he sent letters to 200 to 300 members of “Friends of the San Diego Library,” a fund-raising support group for the library system, and “got back exactly zero response” in favor of the concourse site.

“I think that the concourse is cold and a poor spot for something that I feel should be warm and inviting and really make a statement,” Cleator said.

Cleator suggested the city could save some money by using portions of the old Navy Hospital in Balboa Park for a library. The Navy is scheduled to give the city 17 buildings on 35.5 acres there in 1986 after it opens its new hospital nearby.

Yet the majority of council members opted for the Golden Hall site.

Councilman Mike Gotch, one of the strongest proponents for a library on the concourse, said he envisioned the new downtown branch as a “magnet of a government center” and one of the key pieces emerging in a revived downtown. In addition to library facilities, the concourse project could also include up to 165,000 square feet in additional office space for city government.

Gotch also reminded council members that the city is paying $500,000 a year to help operate Golden Hall, an expense that has made the small convention center a sort of white elephant of city government. The library would relieve the city of that financial burden, because Golden Hall would be razed, he said.

Some of Gotch’s colleagues were not as enthusiastic. Councilman William Jones said he was worried about how the city would build the library if its capital improvement budget is going to be $789 million in the red in the next two decades, as predicted by the city manager.

In approving the measure, City Council members ordered a more detailed report by city staff on what it would take to build the library on the concourse.