The Sunnyvale Sun

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Council opts to put bond measure for library on ballot

By Cody Kraatz

The Sunnyvale City Council opened a new chapter for the bastion of information and community that is the Sunnyvale Public Library.

Voters will decide in November whether the city should sell $108 million in general obligation bonds to upgrade the library after the council approved a ballot measure on July 17.

The bonds are expected to cover construction, but not the approximate $2.2 million per year for operating costs in addition to the currently budgeted $6.7 million.

The city would repay the bonds in $7.5 million annual payments over 30 years, according to a city report. Residents would pay about $20 per $100,000 of their assessed property value, meaning the owner of a $500,000 home would pay $97.60 per year, according to the report.

The measure calls for an "energy efficient, green-designed, environmentally sustainable library to support Sunnyvale's growing community."

Plans for the library, which the council approved on June 19, include doubling its current size to at least 116,000 square feet, with a possible expansion to 143,500 square feet by 2030. The current library, with more than 2,000 visitors daily, was built in 1959 and expanded in 1969 and 1983.

The new library would displace the 1.8-acre Charles Street Gardens; gardeners called for plans that blend the two uses. Laurie Hughes, garden coordinator, said her group is not opposed to the library and wants to work with library proponents.

"We've decided that the garden and the library have a linked future," she said, sitting next to Jim Griffith, president of Build the Library, formerly the Sunnyvale Future Library Committee. Griffith said there have been many conversations between his group and the gardening community since gardeners lobbied in force at an April council meeting.

The council, which may ask voters in future years to approve additional bonds for library materials and operations, debated whether the measure should state that there will be additional costs.

"Aren't we just setting this up to be shot down anyway?" said councilman Christopher Moylan, who thought the measure should preempt critics and explain that millions of dollars for books, furnishings and operations remain unfunded.

But election experts advised the council to leave the measure as is.

"We all agree that it should be disclosed because that's how Sunnyvale operates," said Mary Bradley, Sunnyvale finance director. That disclosure could come in the independent analysis, arguments for and against and rebuttals in the ballot.

Bradley said certain costs are unknown until the design is finalized. For example, energy efficiency could lower energy costs, she said.

Griffith said his group has filed paperwork and begun fundraising for a campaign to support the measure, and should be allowed to write the arguments. The council determines who writes that argument.

For now, the future of the gardens remains uncertain.

"We'd like to start seeing some different plans" that show a symbiotic library and garden, said Eric Fulda, who works and gives tours at the organic garden.