Future Downtown is Key : Centre City Panel Begins Library Site Debate

The ongoing debate about what to do with San Diego’s overcrowded Central Library reached a new forum Wednesday when the issue was presented to the new Centre City Planning Committee.

The recently formed committee, headed by shopping center developer Ernest W. Hahn, has been given the task of recommending to the City Council a downtown site suitable for construction of a $54-million to $65-million library that would be nearly triple the size of the current one.

Although a decision on a recommendation is several months away, Wednesday was the first time the committee--its main responsibility being a major review and update of the various land-use and planning policies that now guide downtown development--had discussed where the library should be located.

Must Fit Downtown of Future

Hahn said that whatever the final decision, it must be made in the context of how the location of a new library fits into the downtown of the future, the very future the committee is trying to map.

Officials from the library and city manager’s office recounted how the issue of building a new central library has been studied since 1977, with ideas for locations bouncing from the Community Concourse to the old Sears store in Hillcrest.

Jack McGrory, deputy city manager, said that while his office has in the past recommended relocation of the library to the Community Concourse, it has backed off from that idea to let the Centre City Planning Committee do its work. What is more definite, he said, is that the city manager’s office wants to ask voters in June, 1988, to approve a general obligation bond to finance building a new library, wherever it may be downtown.

Library Director William Sannwald told the committee that of the seven principal locations under consideration, he favors a site at or close to the Community Concourse, the structure of meetings rooms which is connected to City Hall.

Sannwald said the 33-year-old Central Library, located on E Street between 8th and 9th avenues, is woefully inadequate. The cost of making temporary improvements would reach $4.5 million, he said.

Out of Shelf Space

The 145,000-square-foot structure long ago ran out of shelf space for books, and 40% of the library’s collection is currently unavailable to users. The lack of space affects not only books but also people, he said, as both the library staff and the 2,500 daily patrons face cramped conditions.

“The building is very depressing,” Sannwald said. “The first day I saw it . . . I was depressed. The time has come when it should be replaced.”

Sannwald said that the air-conditioning and heating systems often fail, and that the air in the three-story building is stagnant.

As now envisioned, the new library would have about 376,000 square feet and a capacity of at least 1.2 million volumes. The Central Library now has a little more than 700,000 volumes.

The City Council, while refraining from picking a specific location, has said it wants the new library built downtown. In this regard, library officials said, San Diego would follow the trend of other fast-growing Sun Belt cities such as Dallas, Houston, Atlanta and Orlando, which have built new or expanded central libraries in their downtowns.

William Sauls, a lawyer, downtown resident and a member of the planning group, said it was critical that the design, location and construction of a new library be done in such a fashion that the city doesn’t again find itself in a position of having an outdated facility in just a few decades.

“We want to assure that we have a significant and adequate structure . . . so it doesn’t have to be torn down again in 20 years,” Sauls said.