The city of San Diego has met the California State Library’s most recent requirements to maintain key funding for the $185 million downtown schoobrary, state Librarian Stacey Aldrich said.
Aldrich praised the city’s progress in a letter to a city engineering official dated May 18. The state is giving a $20 million grant for the central library/charter school hybrid, and required the city to provide an updated project cost estimate and lease with the San Diego Unified School District by May 1.
The project’s estimate has remained $185 million and the lease gives the city $20 million from the district toward that cost. The district also has committed to spend $10 million for interior improvements to house a charter school on the library’s sixth and seventh floors.
Aldrich’s guidelines require construction to begin by Aug. 1. The Mayor’s Office expects to bring the schoobrary contract to a City Council committee next month and to full council by early July.
— LIAM DILLON