The 50-year-old caretaker cottage at Stow Grove Park will be demolished as part of planned park renovations. 

The Goleta City Council voted to demolish the cottage on Tuesday because a caretaker hasn’t lived there since 2016 and the cottage has fallen into disrepair.

The city now manages the park through a combination of contracted services and city staff. 

Councilmember James Kyriaco said the removal of the cottage and upcoming renovations mark the start of a new era for the park.

“At the end of the day what we’re doing is we’re continuing the useful life, the purposeful life and the enhanced life of this park,” Kyriaco said. “It’s ultimately going to serve our community in ways that are easy to foresee and not always easy to foresee and it’s going to be a little bit safer, it’s going to be a little bit prettier, and it’s going to be a lot more accessible.”

Earlier this summer the city had Rincon Consultants, Inc. conduct a historical evaluation that determined that while the house is more than 50 years old, the architectural style is not unique and has no historical significance, according to the city staff report.

The report did recommend that Stow Grove Park itself be considered eligible as a place of historical interest within Goleta. 

Councilmember Jennifer Smith recommended that a plaque be added to the park that acknowledged the cottage and the years of service from caretakers. 

“That might be a way to honor that history and preserve it in a different way,” Smith said. “I realize it’s not the same but there might be some creative opportunities there.”

Neighborhood Services Director JoAnne Plummer said they are planning on adding a number of signs to the park that recognize the significance it had to the Stow family and Chumash people. 

The cottage has been at the park since the mid-1960s, and its construction was a requirement when the property was deeded to Santa Barbara County in 1965. The deed transferred to Goleta when it became a city in 2002.

The city reached out to members of the Stow family, who said they were comfortable with the city demolishing the cottage. 

The council also voted Tuesday to approve a prefabricated restroom at the park within an environmentally sensitive habitat area in order to not block the view of the redwood grove. 

The buffer is 100 feet from eucalyptus trees that line La Patera Drive and the restroom would be placed within 50 feet of the buffer. 

To keep impacts to a minimum, the city will put a premade restroom in the ESHA buffer, that way remaining construction would be inside the restroom. 

Demolishing the cottage and adding the new restroom will be part of phase one of the Stow Grove Master Plan. The first phase also includes construction of a new inclusive playground at the park. 

The city expects to start phase one of the renovations next year to be completed in September 2026.