Library group needs millions by June 2008

The Costa Mesa Library Foundation has some serious fundraising to do.

To keep a piece of city land promised for a new 50,000-square-foot central library, the foundation has to raise about $15 million by June 2008.

So far, the group has secured commitments for about $100,000, but the big push for capital is about to begin, said Mary Ellen Goddard, a member of the foundation board and president of the Friends of the Costa Mesa Libraries.

“We went into it a little bit wide-eyed and suddenly realized there’s a lot of background stuff we’ve got to do on this before we really go out” to raise money, she said.

The money is part of an estimated $50 million the foundation expects it will cost to build the new library and an accompanying parking structure. In 2005 the City Council pledged the 2.5-acre Civic Center Park — next to the city Police Department — as a site for the library, but with the condition that the foundation raise 30% of the funds by the third year.

“When we started we were going to need $25 million,” Goddard said. “Now instead of $300 a square foot, it’s $600.”

The failure of a state library bond issue in 2006 was a huge blow to the project, Goddard said.

One possible source of cash is a proposed library fee that would be charged to developers for new residential units. Costa Mesa City Council members this week discussed the fee but have not approved it.

Even if the fee is established, it may not help much. At $500 a unit, it’s only expected to raise about $500,000 in the near future, Councilwoman Katrina Foley said.

“It’s a drop in the bucket and it’s not going to do anything to build a library,” she said.

City leaders agree that Costa Mesa needs more library space. A 2000 study showed its library facilities were the smallest in California compared with cities of similar populations.

The city’s three library branches, operated by the Orange County Public Library, total 16,360 square feet.

According to the study, the city should have at least 41,000 square feet of library facilities.

“Certainly we want to have more libraries, but what we’ve been presented with so far [the fee] doesn’t really seem like it would raise a sufficient amount,” Mayor Allan Mansoor said.

But Goddard said she hopes the council will consider the developer fee because city involvement lends credibility to the foundation’s fundraising efforts.

The group appreciates the promise of the land, she said, but “if we didn’t succeed, they weren’t out anything. Having a commitment of a fee really means more to a grantor as far as the city’s commitment is concerned.”