Planned renovations to four branches of the Berkeley Public Library system have been met with opposition from community members who say the plans – ranging from minor retrofits to outright demolition and replacement – would destroy the buildings’ historical value and misuse voter-approved bond money.
Four of the city’s libraries are scheduled to undergo renovations in the coming months, using $26 million granted by Measure FF in 2008.
Renovations to the Claremont and North Branches to make them less cluttered, more energy-efficient and ADA-accessible were approved Thursday by the Zoning Adjustments Board. Public input and Environmental Impact Reports are necessary before the more contentious plans to demolish and rebuild the South and West Branches can be approved. Those will be completed within the next nine months, according to Steven Buckley, secretary for the board.
Those opposed to the plans said the demolitions do not fit into the scope of Measure FF, which granted municipal bonds to be used only for renovation, construction, seismic and disabled-access improvements and expansion of program areas.
“Some of us were under the impression that the FF bond money was going toward renovation and restoration and were surprised that the money was going towards demolition,” said Anthony Bruce, executive director of the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association.
Echoing this sentiment, Peter Warfield, executive director of the Library Users Association, said the redirection of funds without consulting voters was a “betrayal of the public.”
“We don’t necessarily need to get rid of anything,” he said. “It’s like saying, ‘You are a nice-looking person. What can we get rid of?'”
However, Senior Planner Aaron Sage said preserving the building is not economically or aesthetically productive.
“When you look how much it costs to bring it up to code, about the same amount of money is spent (as rebuilding), and you get a building that is not as attractive and not as functional,” he said. “And you have to add bracing that alters the historic appearance.”
He added that the new buildings will come with added amenities such as solar thermal panels and photo voltaics, which will help West Branch use zero net energy.
The West Branch is on the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s Structures of Merit list, meaning it is considered less important to protect than a landmark, but is still deserving of a public hearing, Bruce said.
While the South Branch has not earned this distinction, some have raised the question of whether it should have this distinction due to its architectural background, leading the Zoning Adjustments Board to believe it would be “prudent” to conduct the Environmental Impact Review before demolishing, Buckley said.
Though the West Branch was designed in the 1920s, it was “remodeled in an unfortunate way” in the 1970s, Bruce said. The city showed interest in restoring the exterior to resemble the original, causing the Berkeley Architectural Heritage Association to view the demolition as “a complete about-face,” Bruce said.
Warfield said recent renovations do not make books available, which he said should be the top priority.
“They are getting rid of reference desks and combining them with circulation desks,” he said. “They are expanding floor space and decreasing shelf space. It is a degradation and reduction of library service to the public. It is a de-emphasis of books and a lack of respect for the terrific assets that (the library) actually (has).”
Despite the complaints, Sage and Buckley said they believe many people are in favor of the project.
“The way things generally work is we hear mainly from people who are in opposition,” Sage said. “There are people out there who if you asked them would say, ‘Yeah, I think that’s a good project,’ but they tend not to get that involved.”