Though it’s still too early to tell exactly how the Sunnyvale civic center should be modernized, the community already is making it clear that a more spacious library needs to be at or near the top of the list.
Residents have indicated they want to see space added to the 55-year-old library for activities and events as well as a more extensive children’s section, public works director Kent Steffens told the city council at its June 23 meeting.
He said that opinion has been emerging since the city formed a community engagement plan in February to get feedback on the proposed renovation of the 25-acre civic center, a project that has been talked about for many years but just officially launched by the council last September.
“The growth needs to be in public areas, places where people use the library,” said Pamela Anderson-Brulé, president and co-founder of Anderson Brulé Architects, Inc. “There is a desire for more collections and definitely more seating and places for people to gather. We’ve also heard a lot, over and over again, that children and teens are underserved right now.”
When Mayor Jim Griffith asked how the public feels about relocating the library to the Sunnyvale community center, staff responded that although there isn’t a consensus yet, many of the residents who attended a community meeting in April expressed a preference for the library to remain at the civic center.
“The majority of folks that we heard from, really, there’s a strong voice of those that came to the workshop, that they really appreciate where [the library] is, that they feel it activates the whole site,” Brulé said.
Besides the library, city staff is assessing all other buildings in the civic center and will consider options for each, which could range from doing nothing to demolishing some buildings and rebuilding.
Sunnyvale City Hall and the Department of Public Safety buildings also could get a big makeover, according to staff.
A modernized city hall likely would feature a new council chambers and larger space for the permit center and administrative offices.
The Department of Public Safety might need more space for record and evidence storage, and the community has shown interest in adding an emergency operations center to it, according to staff.
More community outreach, a market analysis and cost projections still must be done before any decisions are reached.
The next community workshop, scheduled for July 25 from 9 a.m. to noon at the Sunnyvale Community Center ballroom, will center on land use options and space needs. The community center is located at 550 E. Remington Drive.
For more information visit civiccenter.insunnyvale.com.
