Relief for Readers : Rancho Bernardo Checks Out Library Lands

Michaela Murphy has a recurring nightmare. Her troubled dreams revolve around the Rancho Bernardo Library, where she is librarian.

If every patron with checked-out books brought them back on the same day, Murphy’s nightmare would become reality.

“We couldn’t handle it,” she groaned. “It would be an impossible situation. We would be in trouble.”

The 6,000-square-foot library in the heart of the San Diego suburb’s commercial center has 46,000 books on its shelves--but not all at once. About 30,000 of the volumes are checked out at any one time.

Sparring Over Parking Spots

Lines at the library’s checkout desk are now longer than those at the supermarket across the street. And there has been at least one documented bout of fisticuffs over a parking spot in the library lot, which holds only 30 cars. A door count shows the library averages 900 patrons a day.

To remedy this literary squeeze, Murphy estimates, the community needs a 25,000-square-foot building--large enough to hold 100,000 books--and a 100-space parking lot.

Today, Rancho Bernardo residents will have a chance to vote on one of five sites selected by community groups as the most promising locations for a new building. The non-binding advisory ballot is sponsored by Friends of the Library and is the latest in a sometimes-bitter debate that has been waged for several years over where a library should be built.

Several offers to buy the existing library’s site have been received, according to Dan Robertson, a mainstay in the building drive. He estimates that the site will bring $2 million to $2.5 million--enough to build a library to suit the needs of Rancho Bernardo and its many bookworms.

Of the five potential locations, three have been offered to the library at no cost. Two others have price tags attached. Library backers decided it was time to test community opinion on all five.

The options:

- Webb Park. This is a green spot, including a pond, near the existing library in the center of Rancho Bernardo’s commercial district. The owner, the Bernardo Town Center Property Owners Assn., is offering the 4.6 acres without strings, but Robertson and others are concerned about the cost of developing the land.

“It would mean filling in the lake and would be expensive to develop--very expensive,” Robertson said. He believes the group’s generous offer has a purpose behind it: to relieve the owners of high maintenance fees.

- The Bank of Rancho Bernardo. The bank has offered to trade its building for the existing library. But the exchange would not be clean, because the bank also wants money, about $1 million, because its property is larger. The existing library is in a better location.

There are also doubts about whether the building is strong enough to support a heavy load of books. But, if it were torn down, library supporters say, the city could not afford to build a substitute.

- The former Allstate Insurance building. The structure is located conveniently near Rancho Bernardo Road and Bernardo Center Drive. The owners have offered to give the city a 30-year lease, rent-free, on 16,000 square feet. In return, the owners want city permission to build a 703-unit apartment complex and care home for seniors.

Developers of the 20-acre Allstate property, Patrick Development Ltd. and Guttman Construction Co., feel their rent-free offer is too good for the community to turn down. They argue that traffic congestion would not be nearly as bad as that generated by the 600-worker Allstate complex.

This week, the developers sweetened their offer, agreeing to acquire the present library building for $1.3 million, with the money to be used to improve the Allstate building.

- Land used by the city’s Water Utilities Department. This 3-acre parcel lies west of Interstate 15 on the shores of Lake Hodges. Library backers say it is too far from the community center and is not accessible by bus. The land would cost $200,000 to $300,000.

- Property in Rancho Bernardo Heights. This is the first choice of the Rancho Bernardo Friends of the Library and San Diego City Librarian William Sannwald. The 5.7-acre site is southeast of the town center.

The property owners are offering three of the acres free, if the city gives them permission to build six homes on the rest of the plot.

Bernardo Heights residents are opposed to both the library and the additional home sites, pointing out that the developer of the upscale subdivision had promised that the plot would become a park and playground.

Virginia Huddleston, a Bernardo Heights resident, has run a one-woman campaign against use of the site for a library, pointing out that the area is now without open space because the Bernardo Heights Golf Course has become a private club.

‘Remain Just Where It Is’

“The library should remain just where it is,” Huddleston said. “What we want is not on the ballot.”

She said enough land is available around the existing site to build a sizable parking lot, making the 30-space existing lot available for library expansion.

Sannwald, who declines to join the political debates over the site choices, said he prefers the Bernardo Heights location, but would settle for the Allstate site or, as a third choice, the water utilities site.

In each case, Sannwald believes, the sale of the existing library would bring in enough money to build a larger one.

Deputy City Manager Jack McGrory has given his unofficial approval for use of the sale proceeds to build a library, but final approval must come from the City Council.

Although today’s vote is not binding, Robertson believes the city Library Commission and the City Council will be guided by community opinion.

About 2,500 Rancho Bernardo residents are expected to vote between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. in their local community centers.