Burbank's New Library Starts by Moving the Saturday Farmers Market

Every Saturday from 8 a.m. to noon, rain or shine, the Burbank Certified Farmers Market sets up in the Community Services Building parking lot at Olive Avenue and Glenoaks Boulevard. The market's own parking guide sends overflow to the Fire Station lot at Orange Grove and Glenoaks, which is open to the public on weekends, and to the City Hall lot at Third and Orange Grove, "right across Third Street."

That lot is on the construction site for the new Burbank Central Library and Civic Center. In October 2026 the City Council approved a progressive design-build contract with Clark Construction Group – California, with Skidmore, Owings & Merrill as design partner, to replace the Central Library built in 1963. The project's first visible effect will be moving the Saturday market off that lot.

What Comes Down on the Civic Center Block

The City's project page gives the address as 301 East Olive Avenue, on the block bounded by North Third Street, North Glenoaks Boulevard, East Olive Avenue and East Orange Grove Avenue. The approved plan requires demolishing these:

• The Administrative Services Building
• The former Wells Fargo Bank building, now vacant
• The Bike Angel building
• The surface parking areas, covering a project area of 145,390 square feet

The Community Services Building stays. The 1963 Central Library at 110 N. Glenoaks Blvd. is not on the demolition list. The departments in the Administrative Services Building will move into the new building, which is being designed around their needs. The project FAQ says the existing parking will be removed during construction. Until the new garage opens, public parking stays available at the Orange Grove Parking Structure and the Courthouse Parking Structure. The market falls under the same plan: the City says it is exploring temporary downtown locations for the Burbank Certified Farmers Market while construction is underway.

Four Decades of Saturdays

The market was in Burbank before the parking lot was its home. A 2013 City proclamation, reproduced by myBurbank, dates its start to June 27, 1983. The same proclamation credits the volunteer-run Farmers Market Guild, a support group of the Providence Saint Joseph Foundation. The market calls itself not-for-profit, and its proceeds go to the Providence Saint Joseph Hospital Foundation. In August 2016 the Burbank Leader reported the market in the Community Services Building lot, so it has been on this corner for at least a decade.

The current vendor roster includes AZ Ranch, Bellacienda Farms, Bill's Bees, Blessed Farms, Bolaños Family Sprouts, Cuyama Orchards and Givens Farm. The market notes that the lineup can change without notice. It accepts EBT and WIC and offers Market Match up to $15. A temporary move would have to carry all of this to another downtown site: the farm stands, the volunteer guild and the benefits programs.

The Plaza Is Designed Around the Market

The market leaves for construction, but the finished project is laid out to bring it back. The City says the Burbank Certified Farmers Market will be fully incorporated into the design of the new Public Plaza. The concept drawings shown at the March 10, 2026 City Council study session label a "Farmer's Market Plaza" and a "Farmers Market / Flex Space."

That layout follows the public input. Since October 2025, outreach has drawn more than 6,200 people to pop-ups and focus groups, 525 to workshops, 12 guided tours of the current library and 6,700 visits to a project website published in English, Armenian and Spanish. One of those pop-ups was held at the Burbank Farmers Market on December 13, 2025. In the study-session summary, the farmers market ranked as the most important future open-space program.

The terrain shapes the plaza. The site drops 23 feet from Glenoaks to Third Street, so the plaza will likely be built in terraces. The FAQ lists a library deck connected to a coffee shop, an event space for the farmers market and other fairs, a lawn for concerts and movie nights, and a plaza area large enough for festivals and a Christmas tree lighting.

The FAQ puts the new garage at the corner of Glenoaks Boulevard and Orange Grove Avenue.

The 1963 Library Stays Open Through Construction

Because the new building goes up on the Civic Center block, the old library keeps operating. The FAQ says library services will continue as usual through planning and construction. Central's listed hours are 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday. It is closed Sunday.

The building marked an anniversary on Tuesday, November 17. Burbank Public Library's history page says the two-story Central Library was completed in July 1963 and dedicated on November 17, 1963. A library archive record names Fickes & Fickes as its architects. The City explains the replacement plainly. The building has limited natural light and inflexible spaces, and it has had no major update since 1992. Its limited capacity has also pushed crowding to other locations, especially the Buena Vista Branch.

The City has not decided what happens to the old building. Repurposing and reuse are among the options it lists. The FAQ also mentions that future redevelopment at the current Central Library site could help offset project costs.

The other branches take on more of the load starting today, November 19. The Northwest Branch at 3323 W. Victory Blvd. is closed for electrical renovations from November 19 through 29, 2026, and the library is pointing patrons to Central or Buena Vista. The Buena Vista Branch at 300 N. Buena Vista St. is the only one of the three open on Sundays, from 1 to 5 p.m. Its Friends bookstore is open Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 2 to 4 p.m.

A Plan Approved in 2003

The Civic Center block has been waiting for this building for more than two decades. Planned Development 2002-2 was approved in March 2003 with a Development Agreement for a Civic Center Master Plan that included a new library and civic center. The first phase was the Community Services Building, finished in 2008. The library and city office building was left for "a future date." The current project falls under that 2003 approval. A Development Review community meeting took place on April 2, 2026, at the Community Services Building at 150 North Third Street. State environmental records show City approval on April 23, 2026.

Measure P is what moved the project forward. Voters passed the local transactions and use tax in 2018, and half of it goes to infrastructure. The design and construction cost limit is $155 million, and any increase requires City Council approval. Once the final scope and Guaranteed Maximum Price are set, the City plans to issue a lease revenue bond for construction and pay the debt through the Municipal Infrastructure Fund. The City has also secured $10 million in state grant funding.

The program goes well beyond books. It includes a flexible auditorium, a maker space, a media lab, a music recording studio, a teaching kitchen, a café, co-working rooms and a rooftop event space. The parking structure will have EV charging. Speaking about the contract vote, Mayor Tamala Takahashi told myBurbank:

"Libraries have always been more than books. They're places where we learn, gather and connect with one another."

The Dates Ahead

The City's schedule, as announced in October 2026:

• Fall 2026: initial design begins with the Clark and SOM team.
• January 2027: City staff return to the City Council with a design update and the final project labor agreement, which must include a no-strike clause and local hire provisions.
• Summer 2027: construction is expected to start, and the Saturday market leaves the Community Services Building lot.
• Spring 2029: the new library, civic center and plaza are expected to be complete.

The final Guaranteed Maximum Price and financing plan go back to the City Council before main construction begins. Until then the market runs as usual, Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon at Olive and Glenoaks.

A new civic campus on Olive Avenue will change the downtown blocks around it over the next few years. If you own near downtown Burbank and want to know what this project could mean for your home, Craig Strong and the Craig Strong Group can walk you through it. Request a confidential market consultation.