South Pasadena ad hoc panel narrows library-park options, flags historic building and parking trade‑offs

South Pasadena — Consultants and members of the city’s Library Park ad hoc committee on Tuesday reviewed community engagement results and three development options for a reimagined Library Park campus, recommending a shared library/community center without a full gym and asking consultants to return with stronger analyses of a renovate‑and‑retain option for the 1930s library building.

Consultants told the committee they gathered nearly 2,600 participant votes from in‑person outreach and online survey work and offered three site strategies: (A) demolish and build new; (B) demolish the 1980s addition while retaining and integrating the 1930s historic portion; and (C) retain and renovate the entire existing building. The project team advised that a full gym (8,000–12,000 square feet) would likely not fit well on the Library Park site and recommended pursuing gym partnerships with schools, the YMCA or other providers instead.

The options matter because they change the scale, costs and timeline of the project. The consultants presented planning targets developed from peer comparisons and program‑level analysis: a standalone library model would range roughly 27,000–33,000 square feet; sharing spaces with a co‑located community/senior center reduces the recommended library footprint by about 20% to roughly 21,800–27,200 square feet. For the senior/community center (excluding a gym), the recommended range is 19,200–26,000 square feet. The project team said adding exterior program areas (reading gardens, outdoor performance space) would…