13 hours Ago By By Rebecca Wasik, Enterprise staff writer
Friday was a momentous day for the Davis community. The long-awaited Walnut Park Library has officially broken ground in South Davis. On a sunny spring morning, elected officials, community members, library supporters and schoolchildren from nearby Montgomery Elementary School gathered together to celebrate the project, which has been decades in the making.
The newest Yolo County branch library will be the second in the city, alongside the Mary L. Stephens branch, which has become overcrowded. Expected to be completed October 2026, the 12,400-square-foot Walnut Park Library will feature a 1,475 square foot community room, indoor and outdoor children’s areas, a focal garden, four study rooms, a teen room, computers, wi-fi, self-checkout stations, dedicated parking and of course, lots of books - children’s, young adults and adult collections.
The project was designed by WMB Architects. District 2 Supervisor Lucas Frerichs has experience working on this project from both the city and the county side, as a former Davis City Council member. Frerichs spoke about how the project coming to fruition required resilient teamwork from the community as well as the city, county, state and federal levels of government.
According to former state senator Lois Wolk, the project was identified in the city’s General Plan efforts as far back as 1990. In 2022, the Yolo County Library was awarded $8.7 million as part of the Building Forward Grant from the California State Library to help fund the Walnut Park Library project.
In 2023, the city of Davis pledged $1.5 million of American Rescue Plan Act fund dollars to the project. In 2024, $850,000 was received for the project from Congressman Mike Thompson and Measure T was passed by Davis voters, providing ongoing funding for operations of the Walnut Park and Stephens Davis Branches.
Measure T required 2⁄3 of the vote to pass. It passed with 74.42% of the vote.
It will increase the annual special library tax by $49 annually. “The theme of this entire endeavor was keeping the eye on the prize,” said Frerichs. Former District 4 Supervisor Jim Provenza was instrumental in making the Walnut Park Library project a reality.
“My message is, on this project and other projects, never give up,” remarked Provenza. “It will look like it can never happen, it can’t be done. But if you keep at it and it’s important enough, it can be done.
” Provenza also stated the important role libraries play in our democracy. “They (libraries) teach our children, they teach adults, and if you want to find actual facts, you can go to the library,” said Provenza. This year, the land that the library will sit on was officially transferred from the city of Davis to Yolo County.
Davis Council member Josh Chapman represents District 5, the district in which the new library is located. As a parent of children who attended Montgomery Elementary, Chapman is familiar with the former South Davis Montgomery Branch satellite library that operated out of the school’s library, beginning in 2010. It was only open for four hours a day, twice a week.
Chapman also spoke about a satellite library that was set up near Sudwerk Brewery a few years ago when the Stephens Branch was undergoing construction. Chapman says library staff were excited about seeing new faces from South Davis and registering new library users. “Now some of those access barriers are gone,” stated Chapman.
Thompson reminisced about taking his now 26 year old granddaughter to the library when she was young. He remembers her telling his wife, Jan, “Grandma, I love the library.” The message he passed to those in attendance, especially the schoolchildren, is that libraries are incredibly special, important and vital when it comes to accessing information.
Thompson personally, can’t wait to attend the library’s ribbon cutting ceremony. Without the $8.7 million grant from the state library, the project would likely still be just a plan on paper.
As a former Yolo County librarian herself, Deputy State Librarian Rebecca Wendt is happy that the state could help. “A library can help you lift barriers and go beyond them,” said Wendt. “Libraries help you learn, read for pleasure and have connections made to other resources in your community.
Congratulations to Davis.” District 4 Supervisor Sheila Allen, who was heavily involved in the ‘Yes on Measure T’ campaign, ended the groundbreaking by asking the group to take a breath and enjoy the exciting occasion after enduring such a long road to get to this point. “This is a moment of happiness,” declared Allen.
.
