LITTLE TOKYO : Library Supporters Back Church Site

Community leaders have begun a petition drive to rally support for housing the Little Tokyo branch library in the historic Union Church building.

The Little Tokyo Service Center is spearheading the effort to renovate the long-vacant brick building at 120 N. San Pedro St. so it can house the library along with Visual Communications, a nonprofit media company.

The city Board of Library Commissioners has yet to approve the idea. Community leaders are worried because library officials are also considering placing the library in a building near 1st and San Pedro streets, which would conflict with community plans to open a police substation there.

The Little Tokyo library, which circulated 121,000 materials last year, has been housed for several years in a 2,400-square-foot space in the Centenary Church at 3rd and Central streets. Not only does the library need a larger facility, its lease with the church expires in February, 1994, and church officials have indicated they need the space.

Little Tokyo Service Center last fall suggested that the 70-year-old Union Church building, in the Little Tokyo Historic District, would be an ideal permanent site for the library and for Visual Communications, which produces films and documentaries for local groups.

Visual Communications hopes to build production facilities in the church and use the second-floor community hall area for small-scale, public film screenings.

The three-story Union Church has stood vacant for nearly two decades and at one point was slated for demolition by the city. But the community successfully fought to get the north side of 1st Street between Central Avenue and San Pedro Street designated a National Register Historic District in 1986.

The service center is asking the city for a 50-year lease of the church at $1 a year, similar to the arrangement the Japanese American National Museum negotiated with the city to use the Nishi Hongwanji Buddhist Temple at 1st Street and Central Avenue.

Service center officials hope the success of their last building rehabilitation project--the $4-million renovation of the San Pedro Firm apartment building, which was finished on time and under budget--will persuade city officials to approve the lease.

Meanwhile, the service center has hired an architect and secured several loans and grants, including a $50,000 loan from the city Community Development Department and a $25,000 grant from the nonprofit Local Initiative Support Corp., for the Union Church renovation, which is expected to cost about $3 million.

If the library does not move in, the entire project will die because it will be difficult to find another major tenant to fill the space and pay the rent, said Lisa Sugino, Little Tokyo Service Center project manager. “The library commission’s decision is critical to the viability of the building,” she said.

Carmen Martinez, director of library branches, said she agrees the Union Church is a strong library candidate. But library officials are required to look at several sites to find the most affordable, viable one, she said.

Martinez said the search is still in its preliminary stages and she does not know when the library board will make its decision.

“I know there’s a lot of strong support for the Union Church,” she said. “It’s a great site. But this is the process we go through for any site.”