New Library OKd Near Current Site

The Los Angeles Board of Library Commissioners last week ended a yearlong debate over where to build an expanded Los Feliz branch library, selecting a location near the current library over Barnsdall Park.

The commissioners voted 4 to 0 Thursday, without discussion, to begin an environmental impact report on the purchase of the 30,000-square-foot property at the southeast corner of Franklin and Hillhurst avenues. The land has been valued at $2.4 million.

Acquisition and construction will probably take at least two years, said Leslie Nordby, branch library construction projects manager.

The selection of the Hillhurst site was hailed as a victory by a group that formed to prevent the branch library from being relocated half a mile south to the front entrance of Barnsdall Park.

“We won,” said Donna Matson, the leader of the Save Our Library Coalition, a group whose members--including representatives of four homeowners groups, five schools and Friends of the Los Feliz Library--fought vigorously for the Hillhurst site.

Replacement of the library branch, currently located in an overcrowded 2,500-square-foot storefront on Hillhurst, was made possible by a 1989 municipal bond measure. At first, the search focused on two sites on Hillhurst, both within two blocks of the temporary branch.

The proposal to put the library at the front entrance of the regional arts center at Barnsdall surfaced last December, and quickly became the topic of heated debate.

Supporters of the Barnsdall proposal included Councilman Michael Woo and Al Nodal, general manager of the Cultural Affairs Department, which operates Barnsdall’s programs. They argued that a library would enhance the obscure entrance to Barnsdall and increase awareness of the park. But opponents contended that a branch library at Barnsdall would be inaccessible to senior citizens and children who use the temporary branch on Hillhurst Avenue.

The idea lost much of its momentum in August, when members of the Parks and Recreation Commission said the Library Department could not use land at Barnsdall for free, as Nodal had suggested.

After that, Library Department staff recommended that the library be built on the Franklin-Hillhurst site, which is in the heart of a residential neighborhood and within a mile of two elementary schools and a junior high school.

In the meantime, the proposal to build a library at the front entrance of Barnsdall Park has been revived in another form.

In exchange for a promise of millions of dollars in park improvements, city park officials recently agreed to let Barnsdall’s front parking lot be used as an excavation site for the Metro Rail subway system. Among the improvements being considered for the site: a special arts library at the park’s front entrance.