REPORT TO THE HISTORIC PRESERVATION COMMISSION
April 27, 2026
FROM: JENNIFER K. CLARK, AICP, Director
Planning and Development Department
BY: ASHLEY ATKINSON, AICP, Assistant Director
Planning and Development Department
SUBJECT
Title
Review the request to name the future North Fulton Parking Structure to the Carnegie Library Garage for consistency with Resolution No. 2020-272 (APNs: 46620650T and 46620651T)
Body
RECOMMENDATION
Staff recommend that the Historic Preservation Commission review the request to name the future North Fulton Parking Structure for consistency with Resolution No. 2020-272 (Assessor Parcel Number: 465-084-30T) and recommend to City Council the name "Carnegie Library Garage."
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Per Resolution No. 2020-272, requests to name City facilities are to be reviewed by the Historic Preservation Commission before a decision is made by City Council (Exhibit A). The property generally located at Tuolumne and Broadway is planned for a new City parking garage currently known as the North Fulton Parking Structure. The City proposes naming the structure the "Carnegie Library Garage" in honor of the Fresno Carnegie Library that formerly stood on the site and was demolished in 1959.
BACKGROUND
The City of Fresno is developing a new public parking structure on a site of historic civic importance in Downtown Fresno (the block bounded on the north by Tuolumne Street, on the west by Broadway, on the east by Congo Alley, and on the south by the approximate location of Merced Street) (Exhibit B). The site is currently developed with a parking lot but formerly contained Fresno's Carnegie Library, an early and significant public building that served the community for decades and represented a major investment in public education, literacy, and civic life.
Like many cities across the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Fresno benefited from the Carnegie librar...
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