The decision to locate the temporary Gilroy Library on Leavesley
Road near Swanston Lane was a bad one for a number of important
reasons.
Temporary home, terrible site
The decision to locate the temporary Gilroy Library on Leavesley Road near Swanston Lane was a bad one for a number of important reasons. The library needs a temporary home through July 2012 while a new facility is constructed on the current site on Rosanna Street.
The first reason to object to the Leavesley Road site is access. A downtown or near-downtown location is much better for the library’s most disadvantaged patrons. In addition, we have safety concerns for the library’s many juvenile patrons with the Leavesley Road site.
These concerns should have been top of mind for library officials and the Joint Powers Authority, which includes Councilman Dion Bracco, when they were reviewing potential sites.
What about downtown?
But what should have been top of mind for Gilroy City Council, which also had to approve the $135,000 per year contract with Roberts Construction Company, was the health of downtown. As Councilman Perry Woodward who along with Councilman Craig Gartman voted in the minority against the Leavesley Road site, said, “It sure would be nice to have those people going through our downtown.”
Developer Gary Walton proposed two downtown buildings – one at Monterey and Third, another on Fourth – that would have met the library’s needs.
1,200 missed opportunities a day
Instead of drawing 1,200 library patrons a day downtown, where they might also spend some time and money at shops and restaurants, Gilroy will be drawing library patrons to a semi-industrial area on Leavesley Road.
It would have been better to put the library in an empty storefront in the shopping centers east of U.S. 101, where those 1,200 daily library patrons might boost sales tax revenue, than in the location the city and the Joint Powers Authority chose.
It’s too late to snatch back this missed opportunity. But we hope the city will show more foresight, and more consideration for helping struggling local businesses, and self-interest in generating sales tax revenue, the next time an opportunity like this comes along. And one way to make sure they do is by loudly telling them now that they made a serious error in judgment on the temporary library location.
