New Project May Include a Library

The only city in the county library system without its own branch may add a library to a proposed $17-million community center project.

The City Council tonight will consider adding a 10,000-square-foot library building to the 18-acre community center plans, which now include athletic fields, a gymnasium and a park at Alicia Parkway near Paseo de Valencia.

Residents pay about $500,000 in taxes to the county each year to support library services but must travel to Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel or Lake Forest to use a branch.

City staff is negotiating with county officials to free some or all of that tax revenue to help operate a future Laguna Hills library.

“A library is very important to our residents,” said Mayor Randal J. Bressette, who was part of a community center committee that recently finished studying the project. “We’ve worked ever since incorporation [in 1991] to recapture the funding sent to the county without any return of services.”

Also being discussed is whether the county should contribute funds to build the library. Officials have not set a figure on construction.

If the council decides to add a library, the community center project will go to the Parks and Recreation Commission for further refinement.

Bressette said the community center committee backed the plan.

“The committee wanted to make the community center the focal point of our community. As such, it’s the most appropriate location for our library.”