Agoura Hills Library May Find a New Home in Chumash Park

The term recreational reading may soon take on a new meaning in Agoura Hills.

City officials have been given permission to put a library in the town’s main park, even though they earlier promised that the open space would be used for recreation purposes--the more active kind--forever.

The authorization from Los Angeles County lawyers means that the Agoura Hills library will not be forced to move out of town and into Westlake Village or Calabasas.

The library has been an Agoura fixture since 1970, when Los Angeles County set up a storefront book depository to serve the small community. The 7,500-square-foot library has room for 40,000 books and parking for 28 cars.

The town’s population has nearly quadrupled since then, however. Crowded conditions have prompted plans for a 40,000-square-foot facility that will stock 125,000 books and have parking for hundreds of cars.

County library officials hope to get $5 million in state funding for the construction. But they say no money is available for land acquisition, which means free land will be necessary for the building.

That’s where Westlake Village and Calabasas came in.

Officials Suggest Park Site

In May, Kaiser Development Co. offered two acres in a new Westlake Village business park for library use. In July, a 12-acre parcel in a Calabasas industrial park was deeded for public use by Currey Riach Co.

Despite a similar building boom in Agoura Hills, no developer stepped forward with an offer of free land. In the hope of keeping the library, city officials suggested using part of Agoura Hills’ 11-acre Chumash Park.

There was a snag, however, when Agoura Hills officials remembered an agreement they signed after their city incorporated in 1982 and received the deed to Chumash Park from the county Parks and Recreation Department. The city pledged that the park would permanently be used for recreation purposes or be returned to county ownership.

The City Council last month asked the county for permission to subdivide the park. To the city’s surprise, it was quickly granted by county lawyers.

“We have concluded that a public library is a proper park use if the library building is devoted exclusively to library purposes and if it occupies only a portion of the park property,” Deputy County Counsel Helen S. Parker told Mayor Vicky Leary.

Elated council members have scheduled a Sept. 16 public hearing to discuss ways of using the park “without hogging the open space,” Assistant City Manager Felicity Kidd said last week.

She said officials will look at a building plan that would have the library nestled in a hill on the south side of the park, at Driver Avenue and Argos Street.

City Parks Director Joe Donofrio said he is confident that a library building can coexist with the park’s grassy open space and single baseball field. But he acknowledged that a clash may be looming between book lovers and nature lovers.

“Obviously, if you put a library in, you can’t develop as many recreational facilities,” Donofrio said recently. “We have a real shortage of facilities. We need more recreational facilities.”