ORANGE : Council OKs Plans for 2 New Libraries

The City Council voted this week to move ahead with plans to build two libraries, one in cooperation with Rancho Santiago College and a long-awaited new main facility.

In an unusual action taken during a study session Monday, the council voted to set aside $100,000 next year to help fund designs for a public library to be operated with Rancho Santiago College. The city will allocate the money pending negotiations with the college on operational procedures and a budget review in May.

Councilwoman Joanne Coontz opposed the action, saying that allocating funds for the Rancho Santiago branch gave it higher priority than the main library.

“A lot of energy has gone into this branch, and a lot of energy has not gone into the main library,” Coontz said in an interview. “There’s been more lip service than action on libraries in the city of Orange.”

“I also think when the council is discussing something this important, it should be done during a regular, public council session,” she added.

When negotiations with the college are final, the city is expected chip in $4.5 million for a $15.2-million structure that will be constructed on the east Orange campus of Rancho Santiago College and operated by college staff.

The Rancho Santiago branch is one of two libraries proposed to meet the needs of 45,000 residents expected to settle in what is now largely undeveloped east Orange, city Library Director Karen Leo said.

“However, the expediency (for the Rancho Santiago library) is primarily for the community college,” she said. “Their growth rate will probably exceed the city’s need for quite some time.”

The city must work out many details of operation with the college if the joint project is to be successful, Leo said.

For example, college libraries traditionally offer no children’s services, and staffers usually are not trained in serving the general community or acquiring youth or popular collections. Parking on campus may also present a problem, Leo said.

Council members have also instructed staff to develop a funding proposal and timeline for a state-of-the-art main library that is expected to cost $23 million.

“Only Newport Beach has a smaller main library,” Leo said. “Our library is less than half the average size of all the main libraries in the county.”

The current main library, a facility of just over 22,000 square feet, was built in 1960, when the city’s population was 26,444. Planners say the city’s current population of about 112,000 should have a main library three to four times larger.

“Our patrons deserve a better library for the size of their city,” Leo said. “The staff is good and the collection is good, but there are a lot of services we can’t provide because we lack the space. . . . Orange is being shortchanged.”

The preferred site for a new library is on East Chapman Avenue between Water and Jameson streets, currently the site of county fire headquarters. It will take two to three years to prepare whatever property is purchased, and the new facility would be complete in 1999, Leo said.