Council Will Consider Bids on Old Library

With a new library scheduled to open later this year, the City Council on Monday will consider calling for bids on the library building that has served the community since 1971.

City officials say several churches and businesses have called to express interest in the 9,000-square-foot building on Chrisanta Drive near La Paz Road.

“I’ve gotten three or four calls and I know City Hall has gotten several more,” said Councilwoman Sherri M. Butterfield, who chaired the Mission Viejo Library Foundation before being elected to the council in 1994.

The minimum bid has been set at $700,000, but city officials hope to get at least $1 million. Revenue from the sale would be earmarked to help finance the $6.5-million library under construction at La Paz Road and Marguerite Parkway or pay for new books.

The current library was built when Mission Viejo had a population of less than 12,000. The city now has about 92,000 residents and the library is chronically overcrowded. The new library will be more than three times the size of the Chrisanta building.

Still, Butterfield said she feels a sense of nostalgia about the old building going up for sale.

“I used to take my two daughters there for story hour back in 1972,” she said. “It will be kind of like leaving a home that your family has outgrown.”