Wildomar Library Less Than Significant

While studying an EIR (Environmental Impact Report) for a group of condominiums awaiting approval to be built in Wildomar one can’t help wonder what these people are thinking when they declare an increase in population no matter how insignificant, in this case 630 individuals or a 1.9% increase, to be less the significant

This statement is parrotted in another Mitigated Negative Declaration presented to the Planning Commission the month before.Any impacts would be considered incremental and less than significant.

Under the Heading Libraries is the following declarationThe City of Wildomar is a member of the Riverside County Library District (RCLD), which
operates 33 libraries throughout Riverside County and has an annual circulation of 3.4 million
items (Christmas, 2010). According to the City’s General Plan, the County Library System has
District-wide standards of 1.2 volumes and 0.5 square feet of library space per capita. The
Mission Trail Library located at 34303 Mission Trail, is the library nearest to the project site,
approximately 2.7 miles north of the project site.

To show you how old the numbers here are the current Riverside Library system has 35 libraries and 2 bookmobiles. It’s circulation in 2012 was 3,724,657. It’s collection consist of 1,626,646 in 2012.

Existing Mitigation Measure 4.15.6A:

Riverside County shall provide a minimum of approximately 0.5 square foot of library space and 2.5 volumes per county resident.

The Wildomar Library on Mission Trail is 5,384 sq.ft.. With a population of 35,168 (January 2016) the square footage should be 17,584 sq.ft..We are currently at 30 and half percent. Even below the county deficit.

Square Footage per the General Plan rate of 0.5 sq.ft. per capita for Riverside County based on the current population of 2,189,641 (2016) should be 1,094,821 sq. ft.

The current square footage is 360,757 a deficit of 734,064 square feet or about ⅓ of what it should be.

To be fair when the Mission Trail Library, now known as the Wildomar Library, was built it served an estimated population of 20,000 and was 5,000 sq.ft., undersized by half then. With a County Standard of 0.5 sq.ft. per capita it should have been 10,000 sq.ft..

Volumes in the Collection

Wildomar Library contains 20,682 volumes where it should contain 87,920 this is a deficit of 67,238 or 23.5% of what we should have.Per the General Plan the requirement is 2.5 volumes per capitaThe EIR in question states 1.2 volumes per capita, that is the number of volumes on hand in per California Library Statistics 2012.The total collection volume should be 5,474,103 volumes. The current collection in 2012 is 1,540,455. This is a far cry from what it should be with a deficit of 3,933,648 or 28% of what should be in our libraries.

The latest statistics for the Wildomar Library aka Mission Trail Library are 158,380 visits with 69,236 items checked out 2015-16, 69,236 visits with 2,280 children attending programs throughout the year.
2013-2014 Fiscal year had 152,401 visits and 69,236 items checked out.
Visits are up 4% from years previous.
Population 2014 – 33,718
Population 2016 – 35,168 and increase of 4%

The last monies collected for the library was by the County of Riverside, before cityhood, was a Development Impact Fee (DIF) for books only. This money, approximately $167,000, turned over to the city mid-year 2014 (6 years after incorporation) will purchase just under 7,000 books at the County’s estimated cost of $25 per book. But where to put them.

The City of Wildomar chose not to include a DIF for Library Construct or Books when they adopted their fees in 2014.

When this money runs out that’s it

Realizing the Impact to the County of Riverside they updated their DIF in 2014 to include this chapter:

Ordinance No. 659 – Development Impact Fees Program: Under this ordinance, all new residential, industrial and commercial development is required to pay development impact fees commensurate with the level of new development proposed in order to offset impacts to existing and future public facilities. For library services, the ordinance establishes a base per-dwelling unit fee for both single- and multi-family homes; $341 and $286 per dwelling unit respectively. The ordinance enforces the program by stating that “no building permit shall be issued for any Development Project except upon the condition that the Development Impact Fees required by this ordinance are paid.” These funds are collected and used to provide both library services and construction of new facilities pursuant to the Public Facilities Needs List maintained by the County of Riverside and updated annually.Riverside County General Plan Policies: Policy LU 5.1 in the Riverside County General Plan aids in the prevention of significant impacts to libraries. It directs the County of Riverside to take action to ensure that development does not cause growth to exceed acceptable levels of service. In terms of libraries, this is implemented through requirements for development fees to be paid as part of project Conditions of Approval.

It’s a sad state when two of our council members, both of whom proclaim they are members of the “Friends of the Mission Trail” Library, and claim they are pro library have not called for a Developer Impact Fee therefore this city collects no money for books or buildings.

Links to relevant documents and further statistics can be found at http://www.wildomarconnected.c...