The Manhattan Beach City Council on Tuesday approved a memorandum of understanding and a number of permits for the new Los Angeles County library in the Civic Plaza, marking the final bureaucratic step in the long, winding process that started four years ago.
“I’m pleased that we are where we are tonight after coming a long way,” said Mayor David Lesser, who with Councilman Wayne Powell serve on the subcommittee.
The council voted 3-0 to approve the resolution and grant the use permit and costal development permit for the new county library, with fresh councilmen Mark Burton and Tony D’Errico abstaining.
“I feel a great sense of trepidation about taking action without being fully informed on the issues,” Burton said. “I probably have a laundry list of questions and I don’t want to belabor the process.”
In a separate motion, council unanimously approved the lot line adjustment, or quitclaim deed, which exchanges some 600 sq. ft. of city property with county property, and the utility easement, which transfers the responsibility of subsequent repairs and maintenance from the county to the city.
“When the city built the civic center and the police/fire building, there was an inadvertent encroachment into county land,” City Manager Dave Carmany explained. “So we’re rectifying that.”
At the City Council meeting Tuesday evening, architect Johnson Favaro gave an elaborate presentation of the building plans, noting that the “particular personality of the community was the driving force” behind the glass, two-storied design.
“One of the most beautiful things about living right here is, the nature of the air and the light changes throughout the day, throughout the season and year,” Favaro said. “… also, the advances in glass technology seemed really promising in realizing this tradition in the building. So this manifests in the design of the building.”
Both council members and residents expressed concern about the glass reflecting the sun onto pedestrians and motorists passing through Highland Avenue.
Favaro explained that the double-layered glass enclosure is designed to minimize the glare, ensuring that the issue would not be “beyond anything that you find in a contemporary building today.”
Jim Allen, L.A. County’s assistant director of the capital projects and facilities, noted that his staff doesn’t have experience in working with this type of glass building, but has determined that cleaning the glass four times a year is a good starting point.
Under the memorandum, the county and city will meet once a year to make any adjustments to the existing plans.
“It turned out to be a pretty sophisticated feat of engineering,” Favaro said. “… It’s really about capturing the quality of the natural environment. We feel that when combined with the sort of exuberance of the manmade environment with the beach culture, we’ll have arrived at a building that is uniquely Manhattan Beach.”
The existing library will close this June, with demolition set to begin in July. Construction of the new library will begin in the fall, and the grand opening is anticipated for spring of 2015, said Laurie Jester, the city’s planning manager.
