Costa Mesa council to discuss library design contract

Plans to convert the Costa Mesa Neighborhood Community Center into a large central library are expected to continue Tuesday with a City Council vote on a preliminary design contract.

The council will examine a $125,125 tentative agreement with Johnson Favaro, a Culver City-based architectural firm that specializes in building and renovating library facilities, according to city staff.

The idea is to make the 24,000-square-foot downtown community center into a library larger than the city’s three other branches combined. The Donald Dungan branch next door, which is about 6,900 square feet, would be repurposed into a meeting area to help make up for the loss of community space.

Johnson Favaro, which has worked on libraries in West Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Manhattan Beach, is one of four firms interviewed for the project. The county, which runs Costa Mesa’s libraries, helped make the tentative selection.

“Johnson Favaro understands the uniqueness of this project and the importance of creating a project that meets the needs of not just library patrons, but also the community as whole,” city staff wrote.

If chosen, Johnson Favaro would conduct a feasibility study and provide cost estimates and concept plans.

The firm’s project would supplement an earlier study, paid for by the county, that looked at ideas for an adult library with study and conference rooms, teen and children’s areas, and 12,000 square feet for book stacks, computers and reading space.

Library boosters have been supportive of the conversion idea since plans to build a new library across from City Hall were quietly scrapped about two years ago because of a lack of funding and space constrictions in Civic Center Park.

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Council appointments

The council is also expected Tuesday to appoint members to three commissions.

Twenty-one people applied for three open seats on the Planning Commission, including incumbents Robert Dickson and Jeff Mathews. Commissioners receive $400 a month, or $4,800 a year.

The five-member panel’s chairman, Jim Fitzpatrick, did not reapply.

Seventeen people are seeking one of three open seats on the five-member Parks and Recreation Commission, including incumbents Byron de Araka, the chairman, and Bob Graham.

Commissioner Dean Abernathy did not reapply for his seat.

Parks commissioners receive $100 monthly, or $1,200 a year.

The new Senior Commission, formed after the city takeover of the Senior Center last year, has five positions to fill. Twenty people applied for the seats, including recently termed-out Councilwoman Wendy Leece and a few residents who served on the independent board of directors that ran the center before the takeover.

Senior commissioners earn $100 per meeting, or $600 annually.