Santa Barbara’s Vera Cruz Park is swinging in a new direction.
The Santa Barbara Parks and Recreation Department plans to overhaul the downtown park by renovating its community building, adding a new entrance and upgrading the outdoor grounds.
“The hope is that it is able to serve the surrounding community not as a regional destination, but as the kind of space where you can go just to sit on the grass and relax, take your dog for a walk, meet up with friends and have a picnic,” said Jazmin LeBlanc, the Parks and Recreation assistant director.
The News-Press first reported in June that the city doesn’t plan to renew the lease of the current user of the site, the Santa Barbara Trapeze company, past April 2027.
Vera Cruz Park’s transformation comes as the surrounding community becomes a more commercial and residential area, LeBlanc said. Across from the park, the Housing Authority of the City of Santa Barbara opened Vera Cruz Village at 116 East Cota Street in August 2023, offering 28 rental studio units for low-income residents.
“That’s really what’s driving the efforts that we’re making around trying to improve the park space and make sure that it’s as usable to the community,” LeBlanc said.
The Parks and Recreation Commission held a meeting on July 22 to discuss its new renovation project for the site. The first phase began in February and will continue into 2027, LeBlanc said. She said the project might not be completed until 2028.
Initially, the city agreed to a contract with Santa Barbara Trapeze in 2021, aiming to clear Vera Cruz Park after drug use and loitering on the site sparked concern among neighbors.
Jill Zachary, the Parks and Recreation director, told the News-Press in June that the department will not extend the trapeze company’s lease to make Vera Cruz Park “free and open to the public.”
The renovation project is funded by a community development block grant, a federal funding source for parks located in areas recognized as low-income by the United States Census Bureau.
The new vision
For the first phase of the project, Parks and Recreation will upgrade Vera Cruz Park’s community building into a fully electric facility powered by solar. The park’s community building will likely be used for community outreach meetings, public programming and private events such as birthday parties, LeBlanc said.
Parks and Recreation will also remodel the building’s restrooms, and add new flooring, windows and doors, said Keven Strasburg, the Parks and Recreation project engineer.
“We’re doing a full upgrade on it,” he said.
The community building was previously a daycare, LeBlanc said, so the renovations will make the facility more spacious and accessible for people of all ages.
The city will remove the water well structure in the park by this fall as part of the project’s second phase. The third phase of the project will start in 2027 and includes adding a new outdoor patio, lights, irrigation, plants and trees to the park.
Parks and Recreation will also install a new, gated entrance on Vera Cruz Park’s Cota street side. Strasburg said the city plans to lock up the park at night.
The new entrance will face the city’s new police department headquarters planned for 215 East Figueroa Street.
“That will really help that park open up the Cota presence and not have the hiding spot on the other side of the fence,” Strasburg said.
As the project moves forward, Parks and Recreation will gather feedback from residents in the area, Assistant Director LeBlanc said.
“The community outreach would be targeted at the neighborhood to really see what does the neighborhood want in this space,” she said. “That helps drive how we plan.”
