credit: Municipal Research Analyst and Concerned Citizen
In recent public discussions, residents have been told that multiple library sites were seriously evaluated and that the El Cerrito Plaza BART location was simply one option among many.
But the emails obtained through the Public Records Request raise an obvious question:
Where is the evidence of serious planning for other sites?
Because the emails consistently focus on one location:
The EC Plaza / Plaza Station / BART TOD project.
Not occasionally. Repeatedly.
The language used by city staff, library advocates, and stakeholders was highly specific:
- “EC Plaza TOD”
- “Plaza Station Library”
- “BART project space”
- Coordination with the “CWest building developer”
- Design timelines tied to the Plaza development schedule
If other sites were truly under serious consideration, residents would reasonably expect to see similar discussions, planning coordination, conceptual design timelines, stakeholder groups, or project integration tied to those locations as well.
Instead, the documented conversations appear overwhelmingly centered on the Plaza site.
One of the clearest examples came from the May 22, 2024 email from Will H. Provost:
“The City wants to have moved forward development of the conceptual design for the Interior Design Elements for the PSL NLT March, 2025, the time when the CWest building developer starts their Vertical Design.”
That is not generic library planning.
That is planning coordinated around a specific development timeline for a specific site.
Another email discussed whether library design work would still be useful if voters failed to approve funding for construction “in the BART project space.”
Again, not “a future library somewhere in El Cerrito.”
The BART project space.
Residents are not unreasonable for noticing the contradiction.
If the Plaza site was merely one option among many, why do these internal discussions repeatedly treat it as the working plan?
Why was there already:
- a Committee for a Plaza Station Library,
- coordination with TOD planning,
- integration with private development timelines,
- conceptual interior design planning,
- and discussions about using drawings to persuade voters?
The issue is not whether people support libraries.
Most people do.
The issue is whether the public is being given the complete story about how long the Plaza site has been the apparent focus of planning efforts.
When taxpayers are being asked to approve a long-term parcel tax tied to tens of millions of dollars in borrowing, transparency matters.
And right now, the city’s public messaging does not appear to match its own internal emails.
El Cerrito Committee for Responsible Government (ECCRG) 