Renovations to Begin at New Diamond Bar City Hall

After 22 years, the city of Diamond Bar is getting a home of its own.

On Wednesday, local and state officials celebrated the beginning of construction on a joint city hall and L.A. County library project, which will mean a move from the city's current rental across the street at the .

The city purchased its new home at 21810 Copley Drive in September of 2010 with a price tag of $9.9 million. Earlier this year, the city for construction and renovation at the new 57,000 square foot building, which was formerly an Allstate insurance call center.

In total, the , with the city hall on the second floor of the new building and the library on the first floor.

The city plans to move into new space by the end of 2011. The library is expected to open in the summer of 2012.

Councilwoman Carol Herrera said the move is a long time in the making, with discussion of a dedicated city hall that started as early as 1998, during her first term as mayor.

Herrera said that a "Civic Center Task Force" had been formed to consider the concept, but a need for a community center won out over the need for a city hall and the group turned its attention to constructing the .

"Since 1998, we've been pursuing this," Herrera said. "It's wonderful."

City Manager Jim DeStefano said the city's first office after its 1989 incorporation was a single room with one employee, a folding table, and a few chairs.

Over the years, the city space grew and moved through a few buildings in the business park on Copley Drive, Herrera said, and in 2010 the city started to outgrow its space in the South Coast Air Quality Management District.

State Sen. Bob Huff (R-Diamond Bar), a former mayor of Diamond Bar, praised the move as a sign of the city's financial well-being in austere times for the state and country.

"When you look at a time when the Fed is trying to raise debt ceiling to continue to function and when the state has basically ripped off cities and counties to balance its budget, Diamond Bar has done things wisely and fiscally prudent and Diamond Bar has done that from the very beginning," Huff said. "This is the way that we should be doing government projects instead of borrowing and having it cost twice as much as it should."

L.A. County Supervisor Don Knabe said his support for expanding the library came from a desire to create a "regional concept."

"There are no libraries other than Diamond Bar, Rowland Heights, and some others in the county system that are so under-sized and over-used," Knabe said.

Perhaps counter-intuitively, the beginning of construction on the joint city hall and library building was a small demolition project to an interior wall that will clear the way for library shelves and the teen reading area.

Library services and the life-sized fiberglass horse lamp

County Librarian Margaret Donellan Todd said the concept for the new library will look to mix something old with something new.

"We are in a very dynamic moment in time — one foot in the 20th century one in the 21st," Todd said. "So, we know that our libraries have to be designed so that we can move stuff around and adapt without having to build a whole new building."

The library will be a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Silver project, meaning that certain construction materials will be recycled and energy-efficient design will be incorporated, including the installation of rooftop solar panels.

The relocation of the library will also expand parking for the library from its current 35 spaces to 200.

Todd said the new plans will include separate library space for adults and children with a dedicated children's library and a separate teen reading area.

The plans also include an outdoor reading garden that will double as a setting for the library's storytime events.

Todd said the Friends of the Diamond Bar Library bookstore —  — will also be moving into a storefront located just after the entrance to the library.

The new library space will also likely mean , Herrera said.

Assistant City Manager David Doyle said during a presentation in February that the library , including thematic decor.

"[The architects] are going to buy a life-size horse lamp that is on sale at Fashion Island," Doyle said in February. "I don't know how they are going to keep kids from climbing on it, but that's fine."

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