Yolo County begins construction on a new library for South Davis, set to open in 2026
By SUNNY LIU — city@theaggie.org
On April 18, the Yolo County Library, in partnership with the city of Davis and the California State Library, held a ceremony for the planned Walnut Park location at 2700 Lillard Dr.
The planned 12,857-square-foot library will feature an audio-visual community room accessible to not-for-profit organizations, computers, Wi-Fi, study rooms and a “Community Resiliency Center.”
The project is decades in the making and will serve the unmet needs of South Davis residents in accessing library services. The construction of the Walnut Park branch is intended to meet Yolo County’s 2018 to 2035 Library Facilities Master Plan, which recommended another branch to be built in Davis by 2025. The current library serving the area is located within Marguerite Montgomery Elementary School and is only open for eight hours a week to the public. The only other library serving the city of Davis is the Mary L. Stephens Library, located in Central Davis.
Josh Chapman, who represents District 5 and the South Davis area, described the difficulties that local residents face when attempting to access library services.
“For me and for us here in South Davis and for the city as a whole, we haven’t had a place like this,” Chapman said. “We all know that [Interstate] 80 runs straight through the city […] and the barriers for young people or people with disabilities to have access to a library, right? You’d have [a library] that’s almost three miles away, the Mary [L.] Stephens branch. It’s often overcrowded. You have to bike, walk […] drive or take a bus and those are all barriers to people.”
Jim Provenza, a former Yolo County supervisor who had previously pushed for the project, commented on the need for a new library in South Davis.
“What we found was that there was less usage of the library here than in other areas, and it was really important to fill that gap,” Provenza said. “In addition, the largest number of low-income and English learners were in this very area, so it was essential to have a library here.”
The library will cost an estimated $22.8 million and will be financed through a mix of funding streams. Notably, the funding includes a $8.7 million grant from the California State Library, a $1.5 million pledge from the city of Davis and $850,000 from Congressman Mike Thompson. Provenza described the remaining local funding sources.
“The rest of that had to be raised locally,” Provenza said. “Some of that was the money we saved. Some of it was money in various capital funds that the county replenishes over time. And when it was decided that this library was the next project that would go forward, the money was allocated and we were up to over $20 million to build this, for the solar panels, the parking lots, the whole thing.”
Provenza also brought up the importance of libraries in protecting democracy and knowledge.
“I probably wouldn’t have mentioned [this] had we not been in the current climate in Washington, D.C.,” Provenza said. “Libraries stand up [and] are an important part of our democracy. They are holders of knowledge. They teach our children, and they teach adults. And […] everybody can have their own opinion. But if you want to find actual facts, go to a library […] In terms of democratic values, democratic rights, free expression, free speech, free press [and] due process at any point in my life, I’ve never felt that our country was so threatened and a library really is something that pushes back the other way.”
Thompson was responsible for obtaining federal funding for the project. In a speech, he described his motivation for backing this project.
“Because libraries, as you know, are incredibly special,” Thompson said. “They’re important to our democracy. They’re important to freedom of information, access to information and it just really makes a community.”
Thompson then lightheartedly recognized Provenza’s role in securing funding for this project.
“Two happy outcomes,” Thompson said. “One, we get the library. [Provenza], you no longer get to twist my arm saying we need federal money.”
Rebecca Wendt, the deputy state librarian of the California State Library, explained why the state grant was awarded to the Walnut Park Library.
“[Libraries] are guardians of democracy,” Wendt said. “This is the place where you get your information, where you can make your decisions and library staff make the choices as to what is going to be included in the collection space [based] on best practices and […] making sure that they’re collecting the best resources. So here we have a community. The state was happy to read the application for the grant. We were happy to provide the $8.7 million as part of the puzzle piece for this library. But it was because the community was there, the local match was there and the support was there.”
Written By: Sunny Liu — city@theaggie.org
