SLC’s Ballpark area gets a new library, but what will be its next chapter as baseball departs?

In what some see as another community green shoot sprouting, Salt Lake City’s Ballpark neighborhood has a new public library.

The small but colorful Ballpark Library Lab, located at 1406 S. West Temple, opened Friday with a ribbon cutting at its front door as about 100 smiling neighbors and supporters stood and applauded on surrounding sidewalks.

The 1,260-square-foot library is housed in a converted brick duplex on a quiet residential street and is coated with a dazzling mural of native plants and insects by Salt Lake City artist Caro Nillson.

The new community hub is also full of books and other amenities, a kids play area, along with access to the many other educational and community programs and services offered through the Salt Lake City Public Library System.

“It’s really an experiment,” said the library system‘s executive director, Noah Baskett, of the lab concept. “This is an experiment in bringing library services that are grounded in community engagement and feedback.”

Case in point: The new pocket library will have loads of interactive features and a 24/7 book pickup locker out front. Baskett said those and other offerings will be shaped week by week based on what neighbors want.

The branch’s unveiling Friday brought a shot of reassurance to some neighbors who remain worried about Ballpark’s future, especially as the area’s namesake sports stadium a block away, Smith’s Ballpark, temporarily goes dormant.

Library fills major gap

The Ballpark library is the first to open in City Council District 5, the only district citywide without one until now. The idea has been in the works since 2020, when a study of library access and service delivery found a major gap in that south-central part of the city.

District 5’s council member, Darin Mano, said the library site was a long-held dream come true for city officials and the neighborhood, and that it hinted at Ballpark’s brightening prospects with a pending stadium overhaul.

Along with Baskett and Mayor Erin Mendenhall, Mano voiced hopes the new lab would lead to a larger and permanent library branch included in that future redevelopment of the former Salt Lake Bees’ home.

“I hope you’re all proud to live in the Ballpark neighborhood,” Mano told residents, “and to be part of this transition from an already amazing, beautiful, vibrant neighborhood to an even better, more inclusive one, with more restaurants, more shops, and, of course, more access to knowledge and services from the city.”

Mendenhall likened the lab to a pilot project that would ultimately lead to a permanent library. That facility will be more robust, she added, and “more reflective of this community’s wants and needs.”

Bees are gone; Utes are leaving

The Ballpark area has been in a crucial transition since minor league baseball’s Bees announced in early 2023 it would depart its stadium and Utah’s capital altogether in favor of a new home in South Jordan’s Daybreak.

The University of Utah’s baseball team, which had played at Smith’s Ballpark since 1996, had its last game of the season there last week. The Utes will be moving next year into a new on-campus venue, Charlie Monfort Field at America First Ballpark. The U.’s lease on the Ballpark stadium expires at the end of June.

Under a process called Ballpark NEXT, the city is moving ahead with redeveloping the 13.5-acre Ballpark site, at the corner of West Temple and 1300 South, with a community-vetted plan that would reuse part of the stadium in a mixed-use facility centered on arts, culture and gathering spots.

The mayor highlighted the community’s choice from among three redevelopment plans in her State of the City address in January, promising more details this spring.

‘Need to see some progress’

More recently, the city’s Community Reinvestment Agency, or CRA, announced it was commissioning at least 10 murals throughout the Ballpark neighborhood, meant to highlight its history and diversity.

But as some residents watch Utes baseball leave, they are flagging concerns that the stadium makeover might be slowing down, while Ballpark’s investment needs remain dire.

“We don’t have a grocery store. We don’t have a post office. We don’t have a school or green space,” said Fraser Nelson, a member of the grassroots Ballpark Action Network. “We don’t have things that a lot of neighborhoods have that we would like to have.”

Erika Carlsen, a Ballpark community activist and declared candidate to replace Mano, who is stepping down, said that Ballpark residents see major moves happening toward a new sports and entertainment district around downtown’s Delta Center.

“Not that we’re jealous with all the stuff that’s happening downtown,” Carlsen said, “but it’s like, ‘Hey, we were here first.’”

“We really need to see some progress,” she added, “in Ballpark NEXT planning.”

What’s the timeline?

The mayor said Friday the momentum at City Hall toward remaking the stadium and an adjacent parking lot into a community-lifting asset remains strong.

“We are not slowing down. We’re being very careful about this,” Mendenhall said, adding that the coming weeks would bring new announcements “about what these steps forward are going to look like.”

The city’s CRA will assume management of the Ballpark site next month, according to agency spokesperson Tauni Barker. A series of community events is scheduled to begin in July, she said, to run through year’s end.

The City Council, in its role governing the CRA, will also start its review of a final version of the design for the stadium site in July, Barker said, with approval expected by summer’s end.

In city budget talks this week, CRA Director Danny Walz also highlighted $796,000 the agency is setting aside for continuing to activate, maintain and provide security for the stadium facility — as well as another $1 million toward building cash reserves for other potential Ballpark project milestones, including additional planning or future site design.

Once the plans are finalized, the city will seek a development partner for the stadium overhaul later in the year.

“We are excited,” Barker said, “for what’s to come.”