Zoning Administrator modifies minor use permit for new library

The county’s Zoning Administrator approved a modification of the minor use permit for the new Fallbrook branch library.

Zoning administrator Rose Garduno authorized the modification on October 27 and also approved a setback variance. The approvals will permit the construction of the new library.

The site on which the library will be built has RU29 residential zoning, which permits civic uses with the issuance of a minor use permit. Parking for the library will be on adjacent parcels which have S86 parking zoning.

After a 1985 fire destroyed the previous Fallbrook library, the library was rebuilt and expanded to approximately 8,100 square feet. In April 1986, the zoning administrator authorized the replacement library and also granted a variance to reduce the front yard setback from the required 50 feet from the centerline of Mission Road to 49 feet from the centerline and to reduce the rear yard setback from the required 25 feet to 20 feet, 10 inches.

Although funding to construct the new library, which will have 19,076 square feet of space, was not approved by the San Diego County Board of Supervisors until March 2008, the county had sought a state Proposition 14 grant for the new Fallbrook library

during the 2003 and 2004 grant cycles. In December 2002, an environmental mitigated negative declaration for the library was filed. In February 2003, the county’s Planning and Environmental Review Board (PERB) granted a Major Use Permit for the proposed

Fallbrook library and made findings that the project would be consistent with the county’s general plan and with the Fallbrook Community Plan, that the project would be consistent with existing zoning which allows library services with the granting of a major use permit, that the project would comply with all of the findings of a major use permit, and that the project would not have a significant effect on the environment.

PERB’s action approved the collective parking arrangement (in 2002 the county supervisors approved the purchase of the necessary parking) and also approved a reduction in the rear yard setback from 25 feet to 0 feet.

The new library will have a main level and an upper mezzanine level. The entrance to the library will face the parking lot. In addition to several dedicated rooms, a 1,990 square foot Poet’s Patio will be located on the south side and will be surrounded by a wall five feet tall which will provide screening and noise attenuation. A landscaped green roof will be located along Mission Road, and additional landscaping will be planted along the Alvarado Road, South Mission Road, and Fig Street frontage.

The wall surrounding the Poet’s Patio will encroach 17 inches into the required 35-foot setback, and the 60-inch height exceeds the 42 inches allowed by right. The variance issued October 27 also reduces the rear yard setback to 2 feet; the rear yard of the site is located adjacent to the parking parcels where no structures exist.

The new minor use permit carries an expiration date of October 27, 2011, although the permit would require an extension only if construction has not commenced prior to that date.