Library Commission Resumes Plans For New Facility After Dropped Lawsuit

The new Bronson Brookside Library will be built near 46th Street and Madison Place. It can finally move forward after a lawsuit put the plans on pause. 

The Brookside Library has been near 45th Place and Peoria since 1967. But now, it is set to be replaced by a larger library just around the corner near Kelsey Royce's home. 

“You’re going to have a situation which creates the possibility and the potential for children to be harmed, and I do think it's important to have a dialogue about this,” she said. 

Royce believes libraries attract crime, and her neighbor Jonathan Pinkey doesn't want this land developed. But neither of them owns the land; Tulsa Public Schools does.

So, Royce took matters into her own hands and filed a lawsuit in 2023 - something she says might have been done a bit naively.

“Turned out to be a lot more arduous and a lot more troubling and revealing about the whole process and how justice works in these civil cases than I had anticipated,” she said.

Although she was able to pause the progress for about 8 months, Kelsey withdrew the lawsuit on May 13th, so now the project can carry on.

The Tulsa City-County Library Commission told us they wouldn't talk if Kelsey were included in this story. But in a press release, CEO Kim Johnson says, “Royce's claims were not only baseless in fact, they were contrary to our culture and approach to serving Tulsa."

The new Brookside Library is set to break ground later this year.