The City Council voted 6-2 to prepare documents for placing a $195 million general obligation bond on the November ballot to retrofit the Pasadena Public Library on Monday.
The 1925 Central Library building has been shuttered since May 2021 due to seismic safety concerns.
The City has completed 60% plans and cost estimate and will complete construction drawings by spring of next year.
On Monday, Jess Rivas and Jason Lyon said they could not support the recommendation.
“We started this process from a place of unquestioningly saving the building,” said Councilmember Jason Lyon. “And I want to say I love this building. I am a preservation advocate, but we never had a serious conversation about how much is too much and we have $200 million in capital projects we have identified. We have another hundred or more that needs to go into the Rose Bowl. And even though it’s a slightly different thing, we would never, ever, I don’t think we would ever seriously entertain taking on debt in this city to make sure that people are not living in poverty are not housed. And so I cannot in good conscience support $200 million to save one building knowing the obligations we have.”
Rivas said there has not been a discussion on $200 million for one building versus all of the other needs that need to be addressed in the city.
“I want the library to get retrofitted. I think I’m just not there yet in terms of having that discussion that I think we somehow managed to sidetrack. We just got on this path without having that larger discussion,” she said.
The Central Library is one of the three major buildings in the city’s Civic Center District as part of the Bennett Plan. It was dedicated on Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, Feb. 12, 1927.
The plan, developed by architect Edward Bennett, placed the city’s most important civic institutions — including the library and City Hall — within an area where streets conclude at the buildings: City Hall to the east, the library to the north, and the Civic Center to the south.
“To not invest in the library would actually be a step backwards. And part of what makes our civic center so beautiful, so interesting, and also part of what makes our city great,” said Mayor Victor Gordo. “And many communities would say, we’re not going to do that. We’re not going to invest in our historic structures. And that’s been done over time. And then they lose a part of their identity, they lose a part of their values, and pretty soon they lose themselves. So I do believe that this is a very difficult investment and we’ll all suffer the pain, but it is a worthwhile investment. And I’ve said many a time that we’ve inherited a great city, great structures, and we have a responsibility to ensure that the people who come after us inherit a great city with great structures.”
According to a city staff report, KPFF Consulting Engineers has performed an assessment of the building’s condition and its various systems, with the thought that as part of a possible extension of a local parcel tax, voters might consider supporting additional funding to rehabilitate the nearly 100-year-old structure.
The five-year parcel tax was first initiated in 1993 when Pasadena voters agreed to tax themselves in order to prevent service reductions to city libraries due to the prevailing economic conditions at the time.
Since then, the parcel tax has been renewed twice, for 10 years and then for 15 years, in 1997 and 2007, respectively, each time with tremendous voter support (1993 – 79.9%, 1997 – 84%, and 2007 – 80.4%).
In the meantime, KPFF has completed a seismic evaluation outlining the building’s structural system’s retrofit needs. The evaluation includes a rough order of magnitude cost estimate of approximately $111 million for the retrofit and restoration of the building’s systems, including mechanical, electrical, plumbing, and roofing.
Utilizing the information compiled by KPFF, staff has issued a request for proposals to select a qualified design team well-versed in seismic retrofit and historic preservation to further refine the analysis, prepare the environmental report, develop retrofit options, and refine budgetary estimates.
On Sept. 27, Assemblymember Chris Holden presented a $4 million check to the city and Pasadena Public Library to help repair the nearly 100-year-old Central Library.
Although the Pasadena Central Library is closed at this time, nine neighborhood branch libraries are open and continue to offer in-person or online access to books and periodicals, collections, language arts, career and personal development programs, computers, and the Internet.
If the City of Pasadena issues a general obligation (GO) bond of $195 million, the annual debt service would be approximately $12 million, with an average levy of $30 per $100,000 of assessed valuation for 30 years. A GO bond of $153 million, based on a recent analysis of the investment market, would have an average levy of $24 per $100,000 of assessed valuation for 30 years.
GO bonds have historically provided cities and local agencies with the lowest borrowing costs among the types of long-term bonds.
GO bonds are voter-approved and backed by a promise to levy ad valorem property taxes in an amount necessary to pay debt service.
GO bonds require two-thirds voter approval. The City of Pasadena last utilized a GO bond in 1986 to fund the construction of the police department building.
“People always seem to think that just because it stood up for a hundred years that it’s going to stand up for the rest of eternity, but that’s not the case,” said Debra Gerod, partner at Gruen Associates. “It really depends on the size and nature and magnitude of the next earthquake that we can’t predict. So it’s really necessary to improve it. We need to look at life safety measures so that people can be properly notified in the case of an emergency and get out of the building safely.”
Get our daily Pasadena newspaper in your email box. Free.
Get all the latest Pasadena news, more than 10 fresh stories daily, 7 days a week at 7 a.m.
