Groundbreaking for Library Today

It might be another year before the new city library is built, but residents can tour a full-scale outline of the site at groundbreaking ceremonies today.

At 10 a.m., city officials will lead the public through a room-by-room tour of the 27,000-square-foot future library at La Paz Road and Marguerite Parkway.

“At most groundbreakings, people grab shovels and toss some dirt, and we thought what will the public get out of that?” Mayor Sherri M. Butterfield said. “We thought it would be a fun idea to show what the library will look like.”

After a few speakers, including former Mayor Robert Breton and former County Supervisor Gaddi H. Vasquez, all residents in attendance will be led on the tour.

Each sectioned area will have an artist’s rendering of what the room eventually will look like.

“I’m so excited, it feels as if I’m getting married,” said Butterfield, a former chairperson of the Mission Viejo Library Committee. On Saturday, “the library ceases to be a dream and will become a reality, which is wonderful.”

The new library will be about three times as large as the one now serving Mission Viejo. It will hold about 160,000 books, compared to the 60,000 in the local county branch.

The new library will include a heritage room, where display cases will hold exhibits of local culture and history. There will be an expanded children’s section, a community room and an outdoor courtyard for concerts, weddings and other gatherings.