North County Mall recommended as temporary site for Escondido library – San Diego Union-Tribune

The Escondido Public Library soon will check out of the building it’s called home since 1981 and likely operate out of North County Mall for about a year.

The move is necessary to make way for a construction project to the 45,000-square-foot library at 239 S. Kalmia St., where work is expected to begin in June and last 10 to 12 months. The library will return to its original home when work is completed.

The California State Library awarded Escondido a $10 million grant in 2022 from a fund for infrastructure repairs and maintenance to pubic libraries throughout the state, and in January the City Council hired IDS Group for $747,000 to design restoration plans for the city-owned building.

As the project progressed, city staff members narrowed the site for a temporary library to either the mall, a vacant building on Grand Avenue or the California Center for the Arts, Escondido Museum.

On Thursday, city management analyst Francisco Vargas told the Library Board of Trustees that the mall was the best site because the museum was considered too small and the condition of the Grand Avenue building created a timeline risk. The board unanimously agreed with the city staff’s recommendation for the 50,000-square-foot site of the former Forever 21 store on the third floor of the mall, on Via Rancho Parkway off Interstate 15.

The City Council will have final approval and is scheduled to hear terms of the rental agreement in closed session Wednesday, with a lease expected to go before the council in March. A staff report to the Library Board said the mall site will cost $540,000 a year, including $300,000 for rent and $240,000 in utilities.

The library will be closed for about a month during the move, which is expected to start in mid-April.

Library Director Rino Landa said there still are some things to work out for the time that the library is closed, such as whether to place new book-return bins at the mall or just extend the return date on all material that’s checked out.

The library’s operating hours also are unclear as the mall doesn’t open until 10 a.m., but the library traditionally opens at 9 a.m. Landa said as the mall doors are unlocked at 9 a.m., the library may be able to keep its regular hours, although that still must be worked out.

Also unclear is the fate of the bookstore that has operated inside the library for more than 25 years by Friends of the Escondido Library.

Nancy Dartez, president of the nonprofit, said news that the mall had been selected threw the organization for a loop because they had heard the museum would be the choice, and the bookstore would have to close for a year because there would be no room for it.

Since the mall site is about 5,000 square feet bigger than the library building, there will be more than enough room for the bookstore. Dartez said that’s good news, but also a bit disrupting because they already were planning on closing the store and putting the collection in storage.

“We just told them they were going to be laid off for a year, and now we have to tell them come back,” Dartez said about the volunteer staff.

While optimistic that the bookstore will reopen in the mall location as well as the refurbished library, there still is a question of how to fund the move.

Escondido Assistant Director of Community Services Robert Rhoades said the state grant can only be used to fund city operations, and as an independent entity, Friends of the Escondido Library is ineligible for the money.

Dartez said the nonprofit does have some funds that could pay for the move, but it’s too early to know what the cost will be. Rhoades said it’s possible that the moving company might do the task for no extra cost while they’re on the job, but that’s also an unknown.

Another solution could be to get some “strapping young men” to move the bookstore as new volunteers, Dartez said, adding that volunteers now are mostly seniors.

Landa said most of the construction work on the city building will be on the first floor and involve upgrading restrooms to be compliant with the Americans With Disability Act, fixing roof leaks, improvements to the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system, new brighter overhead lighting, new carpeting and possibly new book bins.