THE EL CERRITO LIBRARY INITIATIVE, also known as Measure C, has catalyzed contention among residents as vehement proponents and opponents to the proposed tax have emerged with websites and signs to further their cause before the June 2 election.
Former El Cerrito Mayor Greg Lyman is one of the leaders of the tax measure, while El Cerrito residents Barbara Chan and Wally Nowinski lead the opposition to the tax.
Submitted by Lyman and other proponents to El Cerrito’s City Council in 2025, the official ordinance of the El Cerrito Library Initiative proposes the construction of a new, up-to-code library to be built by residents’ tax dollars, collected from homeowners at the maximum rate of 17 cents per square foot of their house area, or other buildings they might own on their lot, annually for the 30 years following the issuance of construction bonds.
The parcel tax would cease 30 years after construction is completed and would also cover the first 10 full years of the operating costs, according to the ordinance. If a resident owns a 1,000-square-foot house, the homeowner would pay $170 annually before the tax increases due to inflation, which will be assessed annually.
Both supporters and opponents of the tax are now seeking to garner support from residents as the election is less than two months away. If the ordinance passes in June, it will become law, and the city will then choose one of five possible scenarios to spend the tax money.
- Scenario 1 involves spending $10.3 million to refurbish the existing 6,500-square-foot library at 6510 Stockton Ave.
- Scenario 2 would expand the existing facility at a cost of $29.3 million, doubling the square footage to roughly 13,000 square feet. The addition of a $6.42 million parking structure raises the total budget to $35.7 million.
- Scenario 3, which seems the likeliest option given the City Council considered it in its original Strategic Plan, involves spending $37.2 million to build a new library in conjunction with BART’s 20,000-square-foot transit-oriented development that is underway at the El Cerrito Plaza downtown.
- Scenario 4 involves demolishing an existing property on San Pablo Avenue and building a new, roughly 20,000-square-foot library for $41 million. The addition of a parking structure and acquisition costs increases the total estimate to $47.9 million.
- Scenario 5 would entail using $40.6 million to purchase and retrofit that building to create a new library about the same size. The total amount includes acquisition costs.
Too small, not up to code
The current El Cerrito Library was first built in 1948 and expanded in 1960. The facility, which is part of the Contra Costa County Library system, is too small for the city, is not up to seismic code, and is not fully ADA compliant, according to the El Cerrito Library Community Needs Assessments from 2006 and 2014.
Both needs assessments indicate in their executive summaries that the library is becoming unable to serve city residents as it once did. Lyman, for example, points out that areas of the building have no air conditioning, and some windows don’t open.
These realizations led the City Council to consult BART in 2016, asking if a city library could be built in conjunction with BART’s transit-oriented development. Since then, BART picked a developer who had a library on the ground floor of its plans.
This location seems to be where the city thinks a new library should be built, said Lyman, who is also a former City Council member. But opponents don’t like the idea.
“There is no plan, there are no designs, there are no construction bids, nothing for any kind of a real library, whether it’s at the plaza or somewhere else, so we’ll be paying for something that doesn’t have a concrete future,” Chan said.
If the Measure C passes, it would become law and the City Council “essentially has to abide by it,” said Lyman, who also served as an El Cerrito Council member from 2008-20. “It basically outlines how they collect (the tax), how they can spend it, and the fact is that it can only be spent for the library.”
Lyman said it is possible for the City Council to collect tax dollars in advance of construction, which he said would reduce the city’s total construction loans, and the money collected must be used for actual expenditures. This, Chan argues, is one of the problems.
“If the council and the city manager get their way, and the developer gets enough money on his end to match what we’re going to throw in for a transit-oriented development library, that wouldn’t happen for several years,” Chan said. “So we would be paying taxes starting this year, and maybe they might start having a design in 2027, 2028, 2029, it could go on for several years more. So the 30 years that they claim will actually be more; it could be as many as 34 years. The reason we call it a forever tax is that the initiative only includes money for the first 10 years of operating the library.”
Lyman has said the uncertainty of construction is dependent on BART’s end. If the city is unable to move forward with the transit-oriented development because of BART, it may opt for a different scenario and use any provisionally collected tax dollars to begin construction elsewhere, Lyman said.
Exemption for seniors?
Nowinski also voiced concerns that the senior exemptions described in the ordinance aren’t possible.
These senior programs are the Gonsalves-Deukmejian-Petris Senior Citizen Property Tax Assistance Law, which Nowinski points out hasn’t been state-funded since 2008.
The other is the California Property Tax Postponement Program. To qualify, seniors must have “at least 40 percent equity in the home and an annual household income of $55,181 or less (among other requirements). The deferment of property taxes is secured by a lien against the property, which must eventually be repaid.” Nowinski argues the tax-deferment program has arduous income restrictions.
Another criticism of the initiative by opponents is that if built in conjunction with BART’s transit-oriented development, the library would not be owned by the city.
“If you look at all the other county libraries in Contra Costa County, they’re owned by their cities,” Chan said. “Some of them are really gorgeous. I’ve visited every single library plus hundreds of others here in this country and in other countries. If this ballot measure passes, we’ll never own it.”
Lyman said other county library buildings are owned by their cities, but the library materials such as computers, Wi-Fi, books, films, and other resources are owned and managed by the county. Lyman said the city will own the library space, but it will have a ground lease with BART, which would function more like a condominium.
El Cerrito resident Yan Linhart, a retired teacher, signed a petition in favor of Measure C, despite acknowledging some concerns others have about the tax.
“I am very much in favor of libraries in general because they are places where people of all ages and of all levels of income can access books, periodicals, newspapers, and other information,” Linhart said. “I recognize that there are some people who worry about whether their money will be used properly, but I am in favor of it and will be happy to pay the taxes needed to get a new library.”
Residents weigh in
Amit Gressel, an El Cerrito homeowner who has lived in the city most of his life, also supports the library tax.
“I am going to be voting yes on the tax, and my reasoning is that I see and respect everybody’s reasons why they would want to vote no, and I understand the fear of more taxes in this day and age, but I think that El Cerrito deserves nice things,” Gressel said.
Lynn Watkins, an El Cerrito resident since 1989, is against the tax.
“I really support having a better library for El Cerrito — I think we need one — but I strongly oppose Measure C,” Watkins said. “I don’t want to vote for a library tax where there are too many vagaries, there’s no building for the library, there’s no funding for the building, they have not applied for funding for the building, and I would be taxed immediately if this passes. … I have no idea how long I would be paying this tax, but it would be way more than 30 years.”
“I don’t want to vote for a library tax where there are too many vagaries. … I have no idea how long I would be paying this tax, but it would be way more than 30 years.”
Lynn Watkins, El Cerrito resident
Watkins continued, “I think the city would do better to have this fail and come back for a better solution for a more appropriate sized library and consider some of the other alternatives that the consultants have reviewed.”
Residents must now determine whether the drawbacks of the proposed tax outweighs the potential benefits of a future library. Over the past few weeks, yard signs have become increasingly prevalent, one more indication that nothing will get settled until election day.
Christopher Laursen-Bailey is a 10th grader at El Cerrito High School in El Cerrito and a CCYJ reporter. This story originally appeared in CCSpin.