City Manager Mike Parness won Save Civic Park's vote of confidence for a new Walnut Creek library back in February. Mr. Parness made time to sit down with our members and explain compromise plans for a scaled-back plan that's fiscally reasonable and will enhance Civic Park. ... The current library plan is an improvement by leaps and bounds from earlier iterations - and the City deserves credit for taking input and cutting the cost and unsightly parking structure. The City listened and was responsive to our concerns. ... Of course the library plan will not please everyone - and it will take fiscal sacrifice. A library financing plan that includes limited long-term financing is akin to making a large downpayment for a new home with modest mortgage payments. ... It makes good investment sense. ... Walnut Creek CAN afford a new library, and we support using parking reserves and modest parking fee increases to bring this vision to fruition. ...
Here's the letter I sent to all of my friends this week. Please pass the message along! "Please join me in voting 'Yes' on Proposition 81 on June 6. This library bond will help build new facilities in my hometown of Walnut Creek and throughout the state - without raising local property taxes. Prop 81 is a reasonable measure for important community infrastructure. Thanks for your consideration!" ... In a related matter, the largest issue related to the Civic Park library construction that concerns me now is tree preservation. Ultimately, some trees are going to be lost to the project, but it seems from the designs I've seen that the architects should be able to save the evergreen and two oaks in the eastern portion of the current surface lot. These are great shade trees and carbon filters for the cars that park in the lot. If you share my concerns, please e-mail Mayor Kathy Hicks at hicks@walnut-creek.org. Thanks! ...
For library supporters, Prop. 81 is one of the most important issues on the June ballot. My favorite candidate for 12th District Assembly in San Francisco, universal health care advocate Democrat Janet Reilly, last week wrote an opinion in support of Prop. 81. You can read it here. Please vote yes on 81! ... (I'm also supporting Steve Westly in the gubenatorial primary). ...
The Chronicle reported today on the City Council's 4-1 vote in favor of moving ahead with a leaner library project that we feel will enhance Civic Park for generations to come. The article quotes City Manager Mike Parness and his funding optimism, Adriel Hampton on praise for the City's revisions to the design, and No on R spokesman Hardy Miller on possible funding shortfalls in the future. ...
The Mercury News has a short article by the Times' Theresa Harrington about last night's vote on the library. Councilman Gary Skrel, right, was the lone vote against the resolution, arguing, according to Harrington's article, that the City needs to hammer out funding options up front and may need more parking for the future. ... Hopefully the rest of the council are acknowledging with their yes votes that new funding strategies have to be a lot better than Measure R. While we support a modest increase in parking fees (now some of the lowest in the greater Bay Area) if needed for the project, any new property tax measure is bound to fail worse than the last. No matter how much folks talk about 61 percent, No on R voters won that battle. ... Civic Park is simply not the place for a large parking garage for downtown businesses. A fair amount of people are still unhappy with any kind of expanded structure in the park, even if it's a library. ... To stave off a future parking crunch, the City must focus more on transit and on getting folks to park in the gargantuan Broadway Garage that's seldom more than half full (or tear it down - monstrous garages just don't work without attached retail or offices). ... The results of the November election show that the design is important, as is community outreach and compromise. It doesn't matter how long the City plans a library - if it goes to the ballot with a poor design or without reaching out to people it will fail. ... One of our aims here is to shine more light on the project as it goes forward. Perhaps Skrel will help drive a resolution on funding options, which should be cemented this summer. ...
Adriel and Gregg, foreground, listen as Friends of the Library advises the council.
The City Council is currently meeting on revised proposals for the downtown library. ... SaveCivicPark appeared before the council to read the following joint statement, also e-mailed to the mayor last night. ... "Dear Councilmembers, We are encouraged with the direction the City is proceeding in planning for a new library, and we urge you to take immediate action on approving design of the project as proposed in recent community meetings. In a Feb. 13 meeting with City Manager Mike Parness, several of us were able to hear about the latest proposals and to give our input. In general we liked the fact that the City has seriously considered concerns about the impact of the library project on 
Well, with the City's big library meeting coming up on Monday, it looks like positions are cementing. The Yes on R folks are still yes on the library, the No on R side is still opposed to what the City has in mind. ... Hardy Miller, one of the effective spokespeople against R, still feels that the City's proposal is too big and too costly. No on R is advocating against using long-term debt to finance the library and hopes instead that the City will choose to spend only about $20-23 million on the project. They came out of a recent meeting with City Manager Mike Parness and members of the City Council with their core goals unchanged. ... Miller provided us with a copy of his argument that the City needs to hedge its budget for upcoming expenses like Civic Arts programs, police services, Homeland Security efforts, ADA compliance, creek restoration, storm drainage projects and a host of other projected municipal needs. ... "We feel the best course of action is not to put all out eggs in one basket by committing $40 or $50 million to replace the downtown library. It is a branch library. Residents in North and East Walnut Creek already have good library services - as does Rossmoor," Miller told the City. ... No on R is also requesting that the City withdraw its request for state bond funds (on the ballot in June). ... Unfortunately, while we at SaveCivicPark found Miller and his crew sound allies during the R campaign, we have to disagree at this point. Although we advocated against R based on the inclusion of a multi-level parking garage financed by expensive and unfair general obligation bonds, following a recent meeting of our own with Mike Parness we are unanimously favorable towards the direction the City is heading. We respect the No on R arguments, but feel that committing to long-term debt or use of parking funds to build a new library with modest underground parking is a reasonable request. We wouldn't tell you to buy a house without financing, and the City has saved up quite a hefty downpayment for library construction. ... The City's position and plans today are quite different from the lipsticked pork project that went on the ballot in November. In fact, back in August we advocated for nearly exactly what the City is looking at today. ... By all means, come and be heard at Monday's meeting, 7:00 p.m. at Los Lomas, and let's get moving with a new library for downtown Walnut Creek. ...
It's hard to argue that Walnut Creek doesn't need a new library. If the misguided plans for a large bond measure and multi-story garage are off the table, we don't have to. ... Walnut Creek needs a new library - and the City has come up with sound alternatives and the means to pay for them. ... To qualify for possible state bond funds and to generate "legacy" donations from private citizens, the new library has to be a good deal larger than the one we have now. But the City is looking to shave several million dollars off the cost by cutting down on the parking (much of which would have served surrounding businesses at a cost to all Walnut Creek property owners). ... These proposals are hardly set in stone, but they are similar to the path some of us have argued for from early on (see my Aug. 21 post, "In a Perfect World"). A tentative alternative that would put about 170 parking spaces in a single-story below-ground lot and a small surface parking area is perfect. The library could stretch out to the corner of Lincoln and Broadway, greatly enhancing the area and a new civic plaza near the senior center would magically turn into an ice rink in the winter. Should state bond money not come through (and that could easily happen, judging on the way things are going with bond funds up in Sacramento these days), the library could be financed through a modest increase in parking fees. These proposals are exactly the compromises many folks were looking for early last year and here at SaveCivicPark.com we're ready to encourage city leaders wholeheartedly that this is the right way to go. ... Please join us. ...
