Calabasas faces time limit on state’s matching funds for city library
By Gregory Koteles
Special to The Acorn

It isn’t large, but it’s growing. It doesn’t yet have a permanent home. You may not even know it exists. But a small cadre of dedicated people is determined to make the Calabasas Library remarkable.

And the state might help finance it, if the city uses its library card on time.

About $350 million is up for grabs from the state library fund and the Calabasas Library could reap up to $5 million in two-to-one matching funds for construction of a new facility next to The Commons, according to library commissioner Fred Gaines.

"I would hope we don’t get snagged," said Gaines at an informational meeting at the library in city hall last Saturday morning. "But I think we’re already snagged."

The first of three deadlines to apply for a library grant is June 18, 2002, with the remaining cutoff dates spaced nine months apart and offering proportionally less money and stiffer competition each time. Although the Civic Center Advisory Committee (CCAC) forwarded a "preferred conceptual plan" in June to the planning commission, which forwarded it to the city council in July, there "hasn’t been a substantial hearing since then" to review the plans, Gaines said.

Gaines was one of the most vocal opponents to the city’s decision in September to retain the firm of Freedman, Tung & Bottomley, which specializes in civic center master planning. Michael Freedman "guaranteed" that his firm’s involvement would delay the proposed civic center project by only months.

Saturday’s meeting was a prelude to an open workshop and joint meeting of the city council and planning commission at which Freedman will attempt to "build consensus on the library, theater and city hall," according to Bob Hill, a member of the CCAC.

About a dozen people were in attendance, including City Councilman Dennis Washburn and Planning Commissioner James Leewong. Library commissioner Ellen Pangarliotas, Gaines and Hill hosted the meeting, which was intended to bring focus to the library effort.

Hill hoped to push the three workshop meetings scheduled by Freedman up, placing them all before the New Year to be able to complete a grant application package before the first deadline. Gaines, in addition to providing details about the requirements to receive a state grant, said, "The community should know about the possibility of derailing the grant."

After Gaines’ presentation, Leewong asked, "Do we realistically have a chance?"

Replied Gaines, "Is it physically possible to do this? Yes, it think it is."

Near the end of the meeting, Washburn urged attendees to call councilmembers and push for a speedier design process, particularly Lesley Devine and Michael Harrison, who have made the strongest reservations concerning current plans for the civic center.

Also discussed at the meeting was the interim site for the library, a 12,000 square-foot space in Building B of Calabasas Park Center, adjacent The Commons.

The library commission considered eight possible locations before settling on what was called an "ideal site," said Pangarliotas.

Primary reasons given at the meeting for the temporary relocation: (1) The library’s collection has outgrown its current shelf capacity, (2) city hall needs the space now occupied by the library and (3) the location (across the street from the proposed site for the new civic center) would provide continuity for library patrons.