Washougal's Dog Park Is Open. The Library Next Door Won't Be Until 2028.

"I think that so many people that live in the area still really don't know there's a library there, and even if they did, it may not be serving their needs. This is going to be a huge improvement to the area and a great community hub."

That's Jennifer Giltrop, executive director of Fort Vancouver Regional Libraries, talking about the 2,300-square-foot Washougal Community Library that's been tucked inside the city's administrative complex since 1981. Her point was about a building most residents drive past without noticing. But it also describes, almost by accident, the stranger story sitting on the same block: the new dog park, splash pad, and playground that opened at that same civic site months before ground was even broken on the library they're supposed to complement.

If you live near downtown Washougal, you've probably already walked past the finished piece of this project without knowing there's an unfinished piece still years away. Here's what's actually done, what isn't, and why the sequence flipped the way it did.

What's Finished at the Civic Block on Durgan Street

The Washougal Towncenter Revitalization project, known around city hall as WTR, targeted "substantial completion" for its outdoor recreation build by early spring 2026, according to the city's own project updates. That target has now come and gone. Barring delay, residents should have full access this fall to:

• Two separate off-leash dog areas, one sized for small dogs and one for large dogs, sitting just north of Washougal City Hall
• A splash pad, part of the same build
• A children's play area just north of the Washougal Community Center
• A pocket park with expanded seating
• Improved and expanded public parking serving the whole block

This is the city's first off-leash dog park. Washougal has never had one before. That alone makes it worth a trip if your dog has spent years leashed to a sidewalk loop through the neighborhood.

The site sits on the same block that will eventually hold Washougal's new library, at 222 Durgan Street, alongside city hall and the community center. That's the block where the whole story gets interesting, because the library piece is nowhere close to finished.

The Building That's Still Two Years Out

The current Washougal library is small enough that FVRL has spent years pointing out how small. At 2,300 square feet, it's meant to serve close to 18,000 residents, a population that's grown substantially since the building opened in 1981. The replacement, designed by Portland-based Hacker Architects, will be roughly ten times larger at 14,000 square feet, with dedicated children's and teen areas, a community room, three meeting rooms, and a courtyard.

None of that exists yet. As of this summer, the project was still in its funding and permitting stage. In July 2026, the Fort Vancouver Regional Library Foundation announced a $6 million gift from an organization called The Endeavour Fund, the largest single donation in the foundation's history. That gift left the campaign about $400,000 short of its $10.4 million fundraising goal. Sealed construction bids aren't due until September 1, 2026. Groundbreaking is expected sometime this winter, with the library slated to open in early 2028.

So the amenities built to sit beside the library are already open for use, and the library itself is still roughly eighteen months from breaking ground, let alone opening its doors.

Why the Park Got There First

This isn't a story about a construction delay. It's a story about two different ways public projects get paid for.

The outdoor recreation piece of WTR was funded through a mix the city controls more directly: a Department of Commerce capital grant, American Rescue Plan Act dollars, real estate excise tax revenue, park impact fees, and local donations. When the city reviewed its budget in early 2024, it was about $970,000 short of the project's estimated $9.12 million cost. Jeremy Fick of Robertson Fick Engineering, the firm the city hired to design the project, said the team closed most of that gap by scaling back paver square footage and shelter sizes rather than cutting features outright, and the project moved into construction on that adjusted budget.

The library runs on a different clock. It's funded through the FVRL district's own budget, a $2.2 million state grant, and a private philanthropic campaign that the Fort Vancouver Regional Library Foundation and the Friends of Washougal Community Library have been building for years, one donor and one fundraiser at a time. Public capital budgets and grant cycles move faster than a $10.4 million community fundraising campaign, even a well-run one. That gap in financing mechanics, not construction logistics, is why you can walk your dog on new turf this fall while the library that anchors the whole civic block is still collecting its last few hundred thousand dollars.

There's a longer version of this pattern in the city's own planning history. When Washougal adopted its 2019 Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Plan, the city counted 26 parks total and exactly one sitting inside the towncenter itself. That kind of gap tends to make outdoor recreation funding easier to justify to grant committees than a library expansion, which competes for a different, slower pool of money.

Mayor David Stuebe put it simply when the project earned a Top Project of the Year nod from the Vancouver Business Journal last fall: "We've been working hard to create a place where people want to spend time, whether they live here, work here, or are just visiting." The recreation half of that sentence is already true. The rest of it is still under construction, on paper and in fundraising spreadsheets.

What This Means If You're Nearby This Fall

If you live in Washougal, the practical takeaway is simple: the new dog park, splash pad, and playground are yours to use now, not in some future phase. Expect the splash pad to wind down for the season as temperatures drop, since these features typically run through the warm months, but the dog areas and playground should hold up year round. Parking near the block has expanded too, which matters if you've been circling city hall looking for a spot during council meetings or other downtown business.

The library timeline is worth tracking separately if you're a regular patron, or if you want to support it directly. FVRL Foundation and the Friends of Washougal Community Library are still raising that final stretch toward the $10.4 million goal, and groundbreaking this winter will be the next visible sign the second half of this civic block is finally catching up to the first.

For now, the honest way to describe downtown Washougal's civic core is half finished in the best possible sense. One half is open, dog-friendly, and already getting used. The other half is still a construction schedule waiting on a shovel. Knowing the difference, and knowing which one to actually visit this weekend, is the kind of detail that only makes sense if you're paying attention to this particular block on this particular street.

If you're already living near this corner of Washougal and start wondering what a home in this neighborhood is actually worth given everything changing downtown, that's a conversation Debra Penton-Clark has regularly with neighbors on both sides of the Columbia. Request a free home valuation and staging consultation whenever you're ready to talk through it.