Cornelius library bond deserves voter support: Editorial endorsement

CORNELIUS_LIBRARY_RENDERING.JPG

A drawing of the proposed new Cornelius city library would include a ground-floor community center and two floors of housing for low-income seniors above the library.

(Courtesy of Scott Edwards Architecture)

Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, the effort to rebuild Cornelius won’t happen overnight. But if voters say yes to a library bond on the November ballot, they would take a big, bold step toward improving city services while making downtown more livable and more attractive to all residents.

The city seeks approval of a $2.4 million bond over 20 years to build a new library that would replace the outdated, undersized facility on North Barlow Street.

The new facility and a community center would be built on North Adair Street, between 13th and 14th avenues, across from the Virginia Garcia Cornelius Wellness Center that opened last fall.

But it wouldn’t be just a library. Thanks to a partnership with the nonprofit housing agency Bienestar, some 41 units of senior housing also would be constructed right above the library, providing affordable housing and ready-made patrons for the new city facility.

Along with the new health center and a project to improve Cornelius' town center, the new library and apartments would add momentum to efforts to give a new face and new life to this underdog community of 12,000 residents.

The Leader strongly endorses Measure 34-205 on the Nov. 5 ballot. The proposal reflects visionary planning, an admirable partnership of public and private entities and an affordable price tag – all in service to meeting two well documented needs for expanded library services and affordable housing.

The path to Nov. 5 began two years ago with a feasibility study that found there is a demand for affordable senior housing and that most voters would approve the bond.

During the early stages of planning, Jose Eduardo Rivera, executive director of Centro Cultural, made a savvy suggestion: Why not have the city consider a partnership with a housing developer to help defray the costs of construction? And so was born the idea of a three-story building, featuring apartments on top of the library on city-owned land.

The concept has played out well in Portland, where apartments and condos have been built at three Multnomah County Library branches in Hollywood, Sellwood-Moreland and Fairview-Columbia.

Partnering with Bienestar would bring twin benefits: a respected partner and leveraging of public resources. The nonprofit agency has a lengthy track record of developing housing for farmworkers and the working poor in Washington County, including four projects in Forest Grove, three in Hillsboro and Cornelius.

Bienestar, formerly known as Housing Development Corp, has pledged to raise $8 million in housing program grants, primarily through the use of Low Income Housing Tax Credits, a mechanism that provides the builder with cash up front while investors in a limited partnership receive credits on their federal tax liabilities for 10 years.

Bienestar would own and operate the apartments with an eye toward serving a new target population: low-income seniors. The city would own and operate the library and community center and pledges to raise $2.4 million from foundations and private sources on top of the bond proceeds.

While the addition of housing would be most welcome, it’s the prospect of a new library that is more exciting and, frankly, more essential to the city’s future.

Since 2000, every library in Washington County has remodeled, expanded, or built a new building or added a branch, except for Cornelius. Library checkouts in Cornelius have nearly tripled to 118,072 in the last 10 years while the number of library visitors increased 83 percent, from about 42,000 in 2004, to more than 77,000 in 2012.

By any measure, the current facility is grossly inadequate for meeting the needs of city residents. It’s worth noting that the facility receives heavy patronage from the city’s Latino residents, which could help the literacy rate among immigrants.

If voters approve the bond, planning and design work on the project known as Cornelius Place would begin this year and construction would take place between 2016 and 2018. Taxpayers would gain more space for books and media collections, more computers and more study areas, and the proposed community center could provide a home for youth programs.

We are well aware that Cornelius is not a well-to-do community. But city officials have done a good job piecing together this bond measure as part of the overall $12.8 million cost of Cornelius Place. At 29 cents per $1,000 of assessed valuation, the owner of a $180,000 home would pay just $59 a year – or roughly $5 a month.

Ballots were mailed out last weekend and supporters are hard at work trying to drum up support and encourage residents to return their completed ballots. If the measure is defeated, the entire deal – library and apartments – will be nullified.

Too much is at stake to allow that to happen. The Leader offers a full-throated endorsement of Measure 34-205 . Cornelius residents deserve a new, bigger library and this measure gives them the wherewithal to pay for it at a reasonable price.

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