Transfer of Library to City Appears Imminent

County officials are prepared to deed over the E.P. Foster Library building to the city as City Hall readies to pump nearly $1.7 million into the aging downtown fixture.

Negotiations to transfer ownership of the 40-year-old building are expected to be routine and will require the approval of the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, city and county officials said.

But for city officials and library advocates, the move would open the door to a much-needed rehabilitation and face-lift of the building and furthers the city’s goal to improve library services.

“We have a wonderful opportunity that I hope we don’t pass up on,” Mayor Jim Friedman said. “We’re investing money into an extremely valuable community resource that everyone has an opportunity to use, and that is fairly rare in a community.”

The council has already tentatively set aside $1.5 million for the rehabilitation project, spending that won’t become final until summer budget hearings.

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The funds, part of an $8.6-million pot of money initially earmarked for a tourism-based project, would be used to convert longtime second-floor office space into a new library wing while improving the building’s structural integrity, layout and appearance.

Though the use of the money for a library project has angered some in the tourism industry, city officials say the upgrade will only complement the city’s effort to revive its downtown business district.

Some 150,000 people pass through the library’s doors each year, officials said.

“I urge you to move quickly,” Roma Armbrust, president-elect of the city’s Friends of the Library chapter, told the City Council. “Money has a way of being spent for other purposes if we’re not careful about it.”

Working with a team of consultants, city library commissioners have devised plans to add a second-floor entrance, automated book checkout machines, an exterior paint job, stairways, lighting, ceilings, heating, air conditioning, bathrooms and a second-floor children’s section.

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If the deal wins the approval of the Board of Supervisors, the county would transfer the building to the city at no cost.

The city already owns the land under the building. The parcel has been leased to the county for $1 a year since construction on the building began in January 1957.

The library opened in July 1959 at a cost of $464,700, library officials said.

Under the 99-year lease agreement signed between the city and county, ownership of the building was set to be turned over to the city once the lease expired, County Administrator Lin Koester said.

“Basically, the building goes to them in 50 years anyway,” said Koester, who will recommend that the Board of Supervisors approve the transfer. “If they want to take it over early, I see absolutely no problem with that.”

No timeline has been set for the transfer.

City officials must first negotiate transfer terms with the county and then wait for county administrative employees to be relocated from the library’s second floor into the County Administration Building.