This coming Tuesday, April 12th at 5 pm The Laguna Beach City Council will be seeking final approval to execute a 50-year-old option to buy the land out from under the County's Public Library in Laguna Beach.  The city is poised to spend $4,290,000.00 for this property, which is near the southeast corner of downtown. 

Over the past four years, this site has been eyed as a prime candidate for a parking structure rather than a library due to its topology and proximity to downtown.  Councilperson Peter Blake has gone on record as advocating moving the existing library to “the canyon.” Mayor Sue Kempf is leading a subcommittee that is strategically thinking about parking downtown.  The library lot (minus the current library, of course) appeared on the list of finalists for several years now. 

It is hard to imagine turning a functioning, attractive, and beloved public library into a parking lot. The City is not obliged to buy the site, but they will be voting to do so this coming Tuesday.  If they do, the City is proposing to let the County continue to use it as a library, but only for three years maximum.  Then the City would get to do whatever they wanted to with their land, leaving the County Library to fend for itself somewhere else or move out of Laguna Beach.  

By signing this petition we will be informing the Laguna Beach City Council to leave this inviting, convenient, excellently suited property with its friendly, capable staff and welcoming building designed by the renowned architect Fred Briggs as the functioning public library that it is.  If the land is needed that badly, then first develop firm plans to secure another equally appropriate location in town and then commit the incremental funds necessary to replace the structure in-kind, as well as the cost of moving.  

• If the long term plan is to pave paradise and put up a parking lot, then we ask the City to first have an approved, well-funded plan to show the residents of Laguna Beach exactly where the new library will be, what it will look like, how it will be staffed, and what programs it will offer.  
• If the long-term plan is really to leave it as a library, then we ask the CIty save the $4,290,000 and leave the property in the hands of the County Library System. Just because you can buy something does not mean that you should buy something. 

Either way, we, the signers of this petition remind the Laguna City Council that children of all ages benefit from having access to books.