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Chanticleer Avenue County Park is a 4.5-acre neighborhood park in the Live Oak community. Construction of phase 1 is complete. The park opened on January 18th, 2020. During fall 2020 Parks staff held a series of community meetings to get input on phase 2 park improvements at Chanticleer Park to include in the Prop 68 Statewide Park Program application. Based on the input received at these meetings, the Draft Phase 2 Site Plan has been developed.
The Coastal Rail Trail Segments 10 and 11 Project is an approximately 4.5-mile ADA-accessible bicycle/pedestrian path that generally extends along the Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line (SCBRL) corridor, from 17th Avenue in Live Oak to State Park Drive in the Seacliff neighborhood (see maps above). The trail will provide a safe and beautiful experience for recreation, active transportation, and environmental and cultural education along the Monterey Bay. Joggers, bicycle commuters, wheelchair users, kids walking/biking to school, families with strollers, and walkers will all be able to enjoy the paved asphalt surface. These two segments of the Coastal Rail Trail connect to 10 schools, 18 parks, 13 public beaches, 2 community centers, and multiple residential neighborhoods and commercial areas through some of the densest portions of Santa Cruz County.
For more information, please visit: www.santacruzcountyca.gov/railtrail
$400,000 in project funds have been confirmed from a combination of County Park Friends fundraising and District 1 discretionary funding. The money has been used to install new playground equipment, rubberized safety surfacing, and path of travel modifications to increase accessibility. The project is expected to be completed in Winter 2024/2025.
Freedom Lake, a cherished natural resource for both wildlife and the community, has faced challenges from invasive species that disrupt native habitats and diminish water quality. In a series of upcoming workday events, dedicated teams from Watsonville Wetlands Watch and the California Conservation Corps will work side by side to remove invasive trees and plants that are impairing native habitat and obstructing the open viewing and access routes of park users. Consistent with best practices for riparian habitat and vegetation management, willow trees will be pruned and limbed up to reduce hazards for park users and enhance lines of site and the feeling of openness to enhance park user safety. Following winter rains approximately 100 native understory plants and shrubs will be planted within the Acacia removal areas in order to increase diversity of native plants growing on site and improve the park user experience.
County Parks received a grant from the State Coastal Conservancy to fund the planning, environmental review, and preliminary design work for this exciting project. The project entails building an environmental education center at Greyhound Rock. The environmental education center is planned to include simple, rustic cabins for overnight coastal accommodations, a communal restroom facility, trails, outdoor gathering areas, interpretive elements, the conversion of existing unused structures for environmental education programming, and the restoration of coastal bluff habitat. When not being used for environmental education programming, the cabins will be available for use by the public and will provide much-needed low-cost overnight accommodations along the Central Coast.
Hidden Beach County Park has one upcoming improvement: the installation of a prefabricated permanent restroom. The restroom will be accessible to people with mobility impairments and provide flush toilets and running water for handwashing. The facility is sited between the existing playground and the service road. The project is expected to be completed in summer 2025.
The Live Oak Library Annex project is managed by the County of Santa Cruz Department of Public Works. Located at Simpkins Family Swim Center and Live Oak Community Center, it will include flexible program space, a classroom, study rooms, public computers and laptop bar, and a new plaza intergrated with the existing community facilities. These improvements will support a wide range of library and enrichment programming for the benefit of the community for years to come.
County Parks, in partnership with the Santa Cruz County Sanitation District and a consulting team of arborists, biologists, and entomologists is updating the 2010 Moran Lake Monarch Butterfly Habitat Management Plan (MBMHP) to reflect the latest science and guidance from the Xerces Society and others on overwintering monarch habitat. The plan will be used to guide ongoing and upcoming management activities in the park, including drainage improvements and tree planting.
Public Comments If you wish to submit public comments on the draft plan, please send them via email to Rob Tidmore, Park Planner at robert.tidmore@santacruzcountyca.gov
This work is partially funded by a grant from the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
County Parks worked with a consultant team to prepare a restoration and public access plan for Moran Lake County Park. The project evaluated the previous draft park improvement plans prepared by the Redevelopment Agency in 2010. The work included community outreach and development and assessment of restoration goals as well as public access improvements at the park. The planning project is funded in part by the State Coastal Conservancy, including funding from Prop 1, and is expected to be completed by the end of 2023!
A project update was presented to the Parks Commission on June 6, 2022, in which comments received at the May 14th public event were presented. The following PowerPoint was presented in the presentation:
PUBLIC NOTICE 2/21/2024 4:25PM: The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has received a subgrant application for Santa Cruz County, CA. Pursuant to Executive Order (EO) 11988 and 44 CFR Part 9.12, final notice is hereby given of FEMA’s intent to provide funding for this project under the Public Assistance Grant Program (PA). Click here to read the Public Notice. Photo of Public Notice at Location.
Santa Cruz County’s North Coast has limited visitor amenities, infrastructure, and law enforcement, and high visitation levels have increasingly overwhelmed the area and threatened natural resources, public safety, and visitor experience. The intent of the North Coast Facilities Management Plan is to improve management while preserving one of California’s most beautiful stretches of coastline.
Led by Santa Cruz County Parks and funded through twin $100,000 grants from the California Coastal Conservancy and California State Parks, a group of federal, state, and local agencies are working together to identify priority coastal projects between the Santa Cruz city limits and San Mateo County line. Based on prior community and stakeholder engagement, a draft list of priority projects has been identified for inclusion in the North Coast Facilities Management Plan that aim to enhance the North Coast visitor experience, manage visitor impacts, and preserve natural resources.
In 1997, the County of Santa Cruz Department of Parks, Open Space and Cultural Services was gifted a 79.5-acre parcel, known as the Pace property. For the last twenty years, the land has been closed to the public as there has been no way to access it from nearby existing park, Quail Hollow Ranch County Park. The Quail Hollow Ranch County Park Trails Construction project expands the park’s existing 4.5-mile trail network into the nearby Pace property, currently inaccessible to the public from the park. Construction includes the 0.5-mile Pace Access Trail and the 2.0-mile figure-8 Pace Loop Trail. The Pace Access Trail will connect the park’s existing trail system to the nearby Pace property and allow visitors to experience the diverse sandhill ecology.
Led by Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship (SCMTS), we’ve designed a new pump track for Felton’s Coverage Bridge County Park, located at the intersection of Graham Hill Road and Mount Hermon Road. The proposed track will be a paved surface with a series of rollers, jumps, and banked turns that connect in a closed loop. The track would be used for biking, skateboarding, or roller skating by both youth and adults. The proposed track would replace the volleyball court in the park and be surrounded by native drought tolerant landscaping.
Simpkins Family Swim Center has completed the 50 Meter Pool renovation, upgraded the pool lights and tile throughout the lap pool. In addition, the pool boilers were replaced, and maintenance staff resurfaced the pool deck. The renovations were funded in part by State Prop. 86 Per Capita Grant and Measure 6 funding sources. The pool reopened on June 13, 2022. The final phase of this plan is to replace the waterslide, and we are currently working on getting final plans and cost estimates together for that project. Anticipated completion of the installation of a new waterslide should be in early 2026.
In August 2023, the Santa Cruz Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the purchase of a 38.5 acre parcel on Whiting Road, an unused patch of low-lying woodland that sits between two agricultural fields, and adjacent to the Santa Cruz County fairgrounds.
View some of our recently completed projects!
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