The Plaza Library Project: Time to Consider Your Options

The City of El Cerrito has wasted hundreds of thousands of dollars on the Plaza project. Moreover, the city lost out on grant money, resulting in a few million dollars lost. The higher interest rate environment means the city would lose millions more in interest payments.

In fiscal year 2024, the city used reserves out of necessity. This mismanagement is evident in the city’s failure to strategically plan the library measure for the regularly scheduled November election, potentially costing taxpayers about $200,000 to run a special election. The council even scoffed at a construction bond.

The need was not for a professional presentation. The need was for city management to interact with the community instead of telling the community what it is intending to do. There were supposed to be community engagements to discuss the library location and parking at the Plaza. That has not happened.

Additionally, the City is providing misinformation about the costs of renovating or rebuilding on the existing library site. This misinformation is driven by their determination to complete the TOD affordable housing project, which relies on the subsidy for the 20,000 sq ft retail space the library will occupy to finance the construction of the building. A professional contact, the owner of a large construction company, has informed that renovating or rebuilding on the existing site would cost equal to or less than the $1,000 per sq ft price tag for the proposed 20,000 sq ft library. A new 12,400 sq ft building would cost $12,400,000, while a 20,000 sq ft building would cost $20,000,000.

Normally, the council rubber stamps whatever the city manager proposes. It is unclear if the $300 per year forever tax was ever approved by the council. Now, management will not state what its current proposal is or when the people will have a chance to vote on the library issue.

The proposed Plaza library is just a part of a large housing project. El Cerrito will be renters. Therefore, there is a great deal of uncertainty associated with the project. We don’t even know what management is going to propose for the tax measure or when it will be on the ballot.

We have already seen that the size of the library was reduced from 21,000 square feet to 20,000 square feet. We have also seen that the number of dedicated parking spaces was reduced from 63 to ZERO. It now appears as though the city will be donating millions of dollars worth of parking spaces.

There could be years of construction delays which might add millions of dollars to the construction costs. The city already lost out on multi-million dollar grants. The potential project faces a multi-million dollar increase in financing costs, given the current interest rate environment.

Also, while some seem to be comfortable with the top-down approach where the city manager makes all of the decisions and the council follows like sheep, many believe that the community should have meaningful input in the process.

With foot traffic and the borrowing of physical books in steep decline, the community does not need a 20,000 sq ft library with no parking to replace the current 6,500 sq ft library.

Since management and the council will apparently not listen to the community, and are not discussing alternatives. If you are not pleased with the options, you are free to vote NO.

– This article informed for publicly posted community engagement