Rancho Penasquitos Wins on Library Site

San Diego City Council members bowed to the wishes of Rancho Penasquitos residents Tuesday in voting to locate a branch library in the suburban community’s commercial center rather than on the rim of Los Penasquitos Canyon Park where Councilwoman Abbe Wolfsheimer and library officials would prefer it.

American Newland California, a major Penasquitos-area developer, has agreed to donate a 1.5-acre tract of land for the new library within the Rancho Penasquitos Town Centre and next to a YMCA facility.

By a unanimous vote, the council Tuesday approved a conceptual plan that would allow the library and YMCA building to share the center site and parking in an adjacent linear park.

Librarian Bill Sannwald and Wolfsheimer had argued that the commercial center location was not large enough to provide adequate parking for both library and YMCA patrons and advocated a 5.3-acre site half a mile south on the rim of Penasquitos Canyon.

The council’s decision was based on conceptual plans submitted by the city manager’s office that showed adequate space for both facilities within the town center site on Salmon River Road at Fairgrove Lane.

Attorney Alan Perry, a YMCA director, took exception to some of the added requirements proposed for the Y building, but was assured by Mayor Maureen O’Connor that no changes would be made in the YMCA conditional use permit until final design plans for the new 25,000-square-foot library were acted upon.

If the town center site had not been accepted as a library site by the city, American Newland had agreed to donate it, as a condition for development, to the YMCA, which has reported that there is inadequate parking for its current building and an adjacent day care facility.

Opposition to the larger site at Salmon River Road and Calle de las Rosas came from environmentalists who objected to the use of canyon land for uses other than open space and parkland and from community residents who wanted a more centrally located library.