Oakley takes step toward building its first standalone library

Oakley took another step toward relocating its library to downtown with a plan that would have a developer help pay for building the repository at the Civic Center campus.

On Tuesday the council unanimously agreed to spend $60,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds to hire a consultant, Urban Field Studio, to research financing and site planning alternatives and draw a concept design for the library portion of the project.

Under the plan, a high-density, multi-family housing project would be built on the city block bound by O’Hara Avenue, Acme, Second and Ruby streets where the sheriffs patrol substation was once located, the developer of which would also build the library but at the site of the city’s corporation yard at the Civic Center. Though no developer has come forth yet, the city manager earlier said some had expressed interest in such a project.

In January of this year, another consultant, Baker Tilly, presented an initial analysis and the council then directed staff to move forward the option of planning high-density, multifamily housing on O’Hara Avenue, while the next analysis would refine and validate the initial assumptions about the total project.

“With that (initial) analysis, we saw some pretty favorable results that could yield to the community a new library, and that would involve new residential development on the O’Hara block where the current senior center and the old sheriff’s substation sits,” City Manager Josh McMurray told the council.

McMurray added that the city would need to increase the density in that area “to generate enough residual value that would then cover the cost of the construction of the new public library at the Civic Center campus.”

The library that is currently housed at the Freedom High campus is severely inadequate McMurray has said.

The proposal comes 24 years after the Oakley Library located at the Freedom High School campus to share the 6,000-square-foot facility with the school’s library. But in time, it became clear the library had outgrown the space, no longer able to accommodate all the books, children’s activities and study areas that advocates say patrons want.

Access has also hindered by the library’s limited hours of operation because of its school location.

Over the years various ideas have been proposed to create a standalone library elsewhere. In 2012, the Friends of the Oakley Library suggested turning the former CentroMart Building on Main Street into a library. In 2016, a city-backed $93 annual library parcel tax measure failed at the ballot.