In 1965, a few visionary Santa Barbarans transformed blighted land into Santa Barbara’s largest regional park.  For more than 40 years, Elings Park has been an ongoing brownfields conversion that is transforming an old City landfill to community recreation space.  The first phase of this conversion built six tennis courts in the 1970s.  The second phase completed in the 1980s, included softball and soccer fields, community event space, day camp areas, parking, and a Veteran’s Memorial Walk.

After many years of planning, we are moving forward with Phase III.  The third phase of Elings Park will continue to recycle the old city landfill and provide a self-sustaining future by adding recreation and activity space that generates ongoing revenue to fund the park’s operations. 

Elings Park Phase III will recycle 23 acres that was once an old city landfill to provide a variety of essential recreational facilities.  To ensure the park continues as a successful reuse of the land, safety features – such as a new clay cap on the landfill and ongoing ground water and methane gas monitoring - will be improved.

Regenerate

Elings Park is a non-profit park that does not receive city, state, or federal funding.  Based on this, Phase III’s new recreational facilities will allow Elings Park to serve 8% of Santa Barbara’s recreational needs for baseball, soccer, trail running, and wall climbing.  Combined with community event space, these activities will generate vital revenue necessary to support the park’s operations, build the park’s endowment, and ensure a stable future.

Recreate

As the biggest park in Santa Barbara, Phase III will create new recreation areas for the underserved members of our community.  The new Phase III facilities include two multipurpose fields, a multipurpose sports arena, a putting green course, off-leash dog areas, a new community activity center, and much more. 

By creating better spaces for families to play together and reconnect, Phase III will continue to make Elings Park a vital regional park for Santa Barbara.  Please help us make this vision a reality by sharing your comments with us at info@elingspark.org or by calling 569-5611 x12.  And, as always, “come play.”