Local News in Brief : Westlake Village Business Park Chosen as Site for New Library

The Westlake Village City Council has decided to build a new $3.3-million library in a business park at the intersection of Lindero Canyon and Agoura roads.

The council voted unanimously Wednesday night to build the facility after about 100 residents packed the council chambers to oppose an alternative site in a residential area on Foxfield Drive near Lindero Canyon Road.

During a preliminary discussion of library sites in November, four of the five council members had expressed support for locating the library on Foxfield Drive. Both sites have been dedicated to the city by separate developers in exchange for approval of their projects, City Manager Larry W. Bagley said. The Foxfield site had the advantage of being centrally located for the majority of the city’s residents, Bagley said.

But residents at the council meeting blasted the Foxfield site, where the city’s plan called for a two-story, 25,000-square-foot combination library and city hall building next to an existing church and parochial school. Representatives of the nearby Westlake Trails neighborhood said that the building would be incompatible with the area and would exacerbate traffic problems caused by the church.

Councilwoman Berniece Bennett, who was among the four lawmakers who earlier expressed a preference for the Foxfield site, said, “I have heard very well . . . what the people have said.”

The five council members decided to locate only the library at Lindero Canyon and Agoura roads. No decision was made on where to put the new city hall.

City officials expect the library on the 1.45-acre Agoura Road property to be completed in 1991. Council members said that city revenue surpluses will pay for the construction, if voters later this year approve spending that money.