On Wednesday, January 8, 2025, the Parks and Recreation Commission received a presentation on the Universal Playground and new restroom location at Stow Grove Park. This served as another opportunity for the public to learn and provide input on the project. Video of the commission website can be viewed here on the City's website.

On Saturday December 14, 2024, the Stow Grove Master Plan project team held a public workshop at La Patera Elementary Multi-Purpose Room at 10:00 a.m. This workshop allowed the public to review and provide feedback on play equipment for the City of Goleta's first universal playground. Additionally, this workshop also facilitated a discussion for the relocation of the new family restroom identified on the Stow Grove Park Master Plan and more.

On June 18, 2024 the City Council awarded a Professional Design Services Agreement to KTU&A for the Development of Construction Documents for Stow Grove Park. KTU&A was selected as the most responsive and qualified vendor for this project after a competitive Request for Proposal Process. The project will be broken down into three phases with Phase One incorporating the addition of the universal playground due to the aggressive timelines of the grant awarded to the City of Goleta from the State of California Capital Projects Specified Fund.

On June 1, 2023, an application was submitted to the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) for up to $4,887,825 for the construction of Stow Grove Park. First-round notifications are tentatively scheduled to be released in late fall of 2023. Earlier this year, 37th District Assembly member Gregg Hart, and Monique Limon, who represents the 19th Senate District, included a proposal for $750,000 in the State's Budget to assist in the funding for the universal playground proposed at the historic Stow Grove Park, which was signed by Governor Newsom on July 10, 2023. While the design for the playground is yet to begin, the community can expect a park that serves the ‘whole child’-physical, social/emotional, sensory, cognitive and communication.

On May 2, 2023, The Goleta City Council awarded Rincon Consultants, Inc, a Professional Service Agreement for the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) process, which will result in a DRAFT Initial Study - Mitigated Negative Declaration (IS-MIND). This document is anticipated to be published for public review by the end of July 2023. Once CEQA is completed, the Stow Grove Park Draft Master Plan will return to the City Council for final adoption and direction on next steps.

On March 21, 2023, the Stow Grove Park Draft Master Plan was presented to the City Council, to view this meeting click here. The council members were overall supportive of the draft master plan, allowing the project to move on to the next phase of environmental review through the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). This process is anticipated to take four to six months, with a draft analysis presented to the public for a thirty day comment period, prior to returning to the City Council for final determination.

On January 25, 2023, a final workshop was held in conjunction with the Parks and Recreation Commission Meeting of January. This hybrid workshop allowed members of the public to participate online or in person at City Hall. This workshop provided the opportunity for communication on the proposed park amenities between the public and commission members. At the end of public comments and deliberations, the Parks and Recreation Commission members voted on the proposed park amenities to be included in the final draft to be reviewed by the City Council.

On December 3, 2022, the second public workshop for the Stow Grove Master Plan was held at La Patera Elementary School. The turnout for this workshop was over 60 people, nearly doubling the attendance of the first workshop that was held in April of 2022. This workshop allowed community members with an opportunity to visualize the data that was collected from the first survey and responses from the first public workshop, through  the creation of conceptual drafts created by the consulting team. Apart from visuals, community members were encouraged to participate by asking questions to staff, the consultants, and had an opportunity to actively participate through breakout tables and an optional site walk through Stow Grove Park. An additional survey is being developed by the consulting team and will be available for community members unable to attend the workshop. The second survey will be released during the first full week of December.

In November of 2022, City Council received the Stow Grove Master Plan update, which included information related to the survey responses received by the public, a review of the proposed draft plans to be presented to the public for consideration and an understanding of the current conditions within the park, specifically those that may require improvements within the ESHA and/or the ESHA buffers. The City Council has supported the continuation of the public process for the creation of the Stow Grove Park Master Plan. That meeting can be viewed HERE. The next workshop will be held on Saturday December 3, 2022 at La Patera Elementary School from 10:00 am - 12:00 pm and will include a tour of the park, weather permitting.

In October of 2022, the Parks and Recreation Commission received a presentation from staff and the KTUA consulting team, providing an in-depth look at the responses received from the survey. In addition to the requested information, the project team was able to provide information from a requested biological technical report, focusing on the Environmentally Sensitive Habitat. This reports was requested by the project team to better understand historical nests and current habitat activity. This presentation also served as an opportunity for Commissioners to review and provide feedback on the proposed draft plans of the Stow Grove Master Plan. The Commission discussed the information in depth and provided recommendations on the proposed draft plans, allowing the process to move forth for City Council review. One of those recommendations was to include a draft plan that would have minimal improvements for the public to consider. This meeting can be viewed HERE.

In June of 2022, the Parks and Recreation Commission received a presentation of the survey results and requested the consultant analyze the data of the response received on the survey a little further, specifically looking at responses from our Goleta residents. This meeting can be viewed here.

After the first public workshop that was held in April of 2022, a new survey was created and released for community feedback. The Community made their voice heard with over 1,000 responses received in this process, allowing the project team to move through the next phase of the project to determine what may be considered for implementation at the park.

The City of Goleta's design consultant, KTU&A has conducted a preliminary review of historical documents and inventoried current resources in the park. On Saturday, April 23, 2022, the first public workshop for the Master Plan was held at La Patera Elementary School. There was a great turnout at this workshop and great feedback was received! Next step of the project is a new survey that will build upon the survey results from 2019. The results from this survey, previous survey data, community input, and historical information will provide the consultant necessary information to develop three conceptual draft plans for community consideration. To provide your input, please take the survey at the top of this page.

In 2022, the project was kicked off and will take approximately six to eight months to complete. The project scope includes outreach efforts, initial studies and the development of a conceptual design tat could be phased into separate projects if desired. The Professional Services Agreement includes $15,000 of extra services if required by the project. These extra services include additional needs and/or studies, not included in the proposal, related to geotechnical, topography, electrical, structural, mechanical, plumbing, survey and environmental services.

On October 6, 2021, two members of the Parks and Recreation Commission, along with representatives from the Public Works and Neighborhood Services Departments interviewed the four firms and after background and reference checks, KTU&A was selected as the firm most qualified to deliver the project. 

On August 16, 2021, a Request for Proposals (RFP) for outreach and design services for the renovation of Stow Grove Park was released. The RFP closed on Thursday, September 16, with eleven different firms submitting proposals for consideration, four ultimately being invited to interviews.

In April 2021, the City Council supported a recommendation to prepare conceptual documents for the renovation of Stow Grove Park in its entirety and that can be phased for future projects.