Residents Tired of Waiting for Overdue Library

The intersection of Foothill Boulevard and Osborne Street is a dusty, hardscrabble plot of land--infamous as the place where Rodney King was beaten.

But rather than dwell on the parcel’s ignoble past, residents prefer to focus on the promise it holds as the planned site of a new library and environmental center--facilities they say would convert a source of civic shame into one of civic pride.

But despite years of disappointing delays, officials say the project is moving forward, even as they struggle to close a funding gap of up to $2.4 million on the $4-million-plus project.

“At times you think the city government isn’t that dependable,” said Phyllis Hines, secretary for the Lake View Terrace Improvement Assn. “I can’t understand why it’s taken so long.”

As currently envisioned, the library will be a Spanish colonial revival design incorporating unique energy-efficient and eco-friendly features. Those “sustainable” features will save energy bills in the long term but make it a more expensive structure to build.

The architect, Henry Lenny of Santa Barbara, based his design on then-Councilman Richard Alarcon’s budget of about $3.7 million, but the actual construction funds available are closer to $2.5 million.

City officials are now looking at both extra funding to retain those design elements or blueprint changes to reduce costs.

Upon completion, the library would be the latest jewel for Lake View Terrace, sitting adjacent to the renovated Hansen Dam park, which reopened last month. That long-awaited recreation area features a 9-acre fishing lake and a 20,000-square-foot swimming lake.

The energy-efficient design, Lenny said, would use straw bales for insulation material and 4-foot-thick walls to retain a constant internal temperature. A dish in the roof, with photovoltaic cells, would produce energy. And poplars, oaks and London plane trees planted close to the building would reduce heating and cooling bills, he said.

A library master plan identified the need for a Lake View Terrace branch in 1988, but the facility’s birthing process has been long and sometimes circuitous.

Over the years, the library was linked to other projects that sometimes echoed shifting political and community needs.

The search to identify funding and a site was launched in 1994 by the city’s Library Commission.

That year Alarcon, whose district included Lake View Terrace, obtained the City Council’s approval to set aside $1 million for the library from a $5-million trust fund to benefit residents who live near the Lopez Canyon Landfill. Because that seed money came from the Lopez fund--which was created to ease the emotional and environmental problems of residents living near the dump--Alarcon said he wanted the library to be environmentally conscious and “an attraction for the city of Los Angeles.”

A year later, Alarcon envisioned an affordable housing project dubbed Library Village for a nearby parcel on Foothill near Pierce Street. But residents hated the low-income housing idea, even though it included land donated by a construction company for a new library, and the project died.

In August 1995, the library resurfaced as part of Alarcon’s proposed Peace Gardens project for the Foothill and Osborne parcel. This plan featured a community banquet hall and gardens with a sculpture fashioned out of discarded guns. The Peace Gardens concept, Alarcon said, was inspired not by the videotaped 1991 King beating that occurred there but rather a broader anti-violence, anti-gang theme.

But after backlash about building a “white elephant” banquet hall during a time of government layoffs, and protests from the city parks department that it would create traffic problems for Hansen Dam, the banquet hall idea was also scrapped.

By then, more than $3 million had been allocated for the library, including the Lopez funds and $2.1 million in federal block grant money.

From that total, $700,000 was spent to purchase the 1 1/2-acre site at Foothill and Osborne from private owners, said Fontayne Holmes, Central Library director.

In addition to the library, Lenny’s master plan includes an environmental awareness center located on an adjoining .85-acre parcel owned by the parks department.

But more money--and possible design changes--are still needed before construction can begin. Those efforts are being pursued on several fronts.

On Sept. 9, the Board of Library Commissioners decided to apply for an additional $1 million in federal grants. Alarcon, who is now a state senator, said he is trying to find state funds to tap into. And Alarcon’s 7th District City Council successor, Alex Padilla, said the project is a priority on his to-do list.

“From the very beginning, the community was well aware that we were focused on quality and it might take a little longer given the sustainability concepts,” Alarcon said last week.

Residents have grown tired of waiting, however.

“It’s a growing process that is very agonizing,” Hines said. “At this point, all we want is our library.”