The Walnut Creek City Council agreed unanimously this week to put a $21 million library bond measure on the Nov. 8 ballot.
The bonds would help finance a new 42,000- to 50,000-square-foot downtown library and parking garage to replace the 9,200-square foot facility built in 1961. The project is expected to cost $50 million, according to the Contra Costa Times.
The city, in the suburbs east of San Francisco, is also counting on receiving an $18 million state library grant next year, if California voters approve a $600 million library bond measure in June 2006. Additionally, the city has about $16.3 million in a reserve fund for the library and a local foundation has pledged to raise millions of dollars for the project.
Walnut Creek plans to acquire private property inside a downtown park for the library, parking garage, and creek walk. If negotiations with the family that lives in a historic home on the site are unsuccessful, the city may use eminent domain, the newspaper report said.
