Sites for Larger Building Tempt Library to Leave Agoura Hills

A campaign to enlarge Agoura Hills’ tiny public library may turn out to be one for the books: residents could be forced to leave town to find a place big enough.

Land developers in Calabasas and in Westlake Village have offered free sites for a new permanent library. But builders in Agoura Hills, which is in the midst of a construction boom, have not.

A donated site is important to Los Angeles County officials who have operated a branch library in Agoura Hills for 14 years. They say proposed state legislation would finance construction of a new $5-million library building but would not cover costs of land acquisition.

But, although offers of free space to the east and to the west of Agoura Hills are delighting library administrators, they are vexing Agoura Hills officials. The officials contend that their town is at the geographical center of the library’s service area and thus the library, known officially as the Las Virgenes branch, should stay there.

“We’d certainly like to see it remain here,” Agoura Hills City Manager Michael Huse said Wednesday. “It’s been here, and the community identifies with it.”

In an effort to keep the library in town, the city’s lawyers are investigating whether Agoura Hills can convert city parkland into a library site.

Huse said either of two parks could make a convenient location, although using them could prove tricky.

He said one of the sites may be regulated by state law because it was donated to the city by a developer as part of open-space requirements. The other may be controlled by a recreation-use agreement that the city signed when it incorporated in 1982 and took possession of the park from the county, Huse said.

The potential library site in Westlake Village is a two-acre portion of a business park a few hundred yards from Agoura Hills’ western boundary.

The Kaiser Development Co. of Carlsbad agreed to donate the land two weeks ago when the Westlake Village City Council met to vote on a 55-acre Agoura Road business park project.

Library as Buffer

The council approved the Kaiser business park after deciding that a library or some other public building would serve nicely as a buffer between the business complex and a next-door condominium project. Westlake Village City Manager James E. Emmons said that, if county library officials do not decide to build on the $700,000 parcel by Dec. 31, the city will become its owner.

Emmons said Wednesday that the site would be perfect for a library because patrons would be able to use the business park’s parking lot much of the time.

“Library usage is highest when business users aren’t there,” Emmons said, referring to patronage during evening hours. “If the site isn’t used as a library, we can use it, perhaps as a City Hall or a recreation facility.”

The potential library site in Calabasas is a 13-acre parcel in an unincorporated area. Its owner is the Currey Riach Co., which is developing an industrial park next to Agoura Hills’ eastern boundary.

Hans Giraud, a Currey Riach consultant, said Wednesday that the firm agreed four years ago to donate the site to the county. The actual deed to the site--worth an estimated $6 million--will be transferred to the county in July, he said.

“It is being donated as a civic-center site, with no strings attached,” Giraud said. “It seemed like a perfect place for a civic center. And a civic center there does enhance our project.”

So far, the only firm tenant for the future county facility is the Sheriff’s Department, according to county officials.

Capt. Mark Squiers, commander of the sheriff’s station in Malibu, said a new sheriff’s station could be open at the Calabasas site as early as 1988 if $8 million to $10 million is quickly allocated by county supervisors.

Cost Set at $5 Million

A replacement for the Agoura Hills library would cost about $5 million, according to Linda F. Crismond, county librarian.

But its financing depends on passage of the $200-million California Library Construction and Renovation Bond Act of 1986, sponsored by Sen. Barry Keene (D-Benicia), Crismond said Wednesday. That bill is scheduled to undergo scrutiny by the Senate Appropriations Committee on June 2.

Crismond said she plans to confer with officials of both Agoura Hills and Westlake Village before she picks a new library site.

“We’re looking at serving that entire area--Hidden Hills, unincorporated Calabasas, Westlake Village, Agoura Hills,” she said. “I definitely have an open mind about it. I recognize each area would like to have a library.”

Crismond said the ideal library site would be close to residential areas north of the Ventura Freeway and close to elementary schools. Neither the Westlake Village nor the Calabasas site fits that bill.

Neither does the existing 14-year-old Agoura Hills library, a 7,500-square-foot structure among shops in a on Roadside Drive that has parking for only 28 cars and room for only 40,000 books.

Si Rimer, Agoura Hills branch librarian, said he hopes that a new, 40,000-square-foot library will eventually have 125,000 books and offer parking space for “a couple of hundred cars.”

Sale Planned

When a new library is built, the county plans to sell the existing building, which it rented on a 15-year lease-buy option until it purchased the structure last December for $250,000. Proceeds of the sale will be used to help outfit the new library, Rimer said Wednesday.

He said a new library--wherever it ends up--will probably triple his branch’s patronage nd send book checkouts soaring. About 150,000 books are now being checked out yearly at the Agoura Hills branch.

“Right now it’s hard to get here and hard to park once you get here,” he said. “This place is sometimes like Macy’s bargain basement.”